Critical care nursing
Critical care nursing is a branch of nursing that majorly focuses on the provision of utmost care to patients under critical conditions. These patients may either have undergone surgery, having serious injuries, as well as being in unstable health condition. As a result, it is equally important to understand that critical care nurses can be found in the environment such as intensive care units, trauma centers, and emergency departments. (Adam & Welch, 2017). On the other end, critical care nursing can be applied to patients that are critically ill and need mechanical support and ventilation. This branch of nursing is known to be very advanced in knowledge and skills in modern life care and support. This means that they are highly equipped with technological advancements that enable life to be sustained and supported through advanced researching schemes. For instance, critical care nurses are specially trained in programs such as advanced cardiac life support as well as acute and critical care nursing programs. The nurses are supposed to obtain verified certification to practice critical care nursing to specialized patients. Some of the other roles of critical care nursing include; performing assessments on critical conditions, advocating for critically ill patients, and offering intensive therapy and interventions to the patients. (Urden & Lough, 2017)
Literature Review
According to Aari and Helena, critical care nursing should be approached with higher levels of competency-based examination and skill requirements. Furthermore, there is more stress and pressure in nursing and professional practice. The literature study presented by the scholars was to generally examine the potential of providing the best care in nursing through having qualified professionals to have hands-on critical jobs. This was to draw a boundary line that incompetent nurses cannot provide quality nursing care to ailing patients. Consequently, this would result in fatal results due to factors such as lesser accuracy in drug administration, dosage administration as well as therapy administration. Furthermore, these scholars went ahead to define critical care nursing as a specialized knowledge based on attitude, values, and general nursing experience. Hence, these were the guiding principles to be used in determining the clinical competency of critical care nursing. Besides, the professional competency depended upon factors such as ethical satisfaction, teamwork, decision making, and collaborative principles. (Aari & Helena, 2008)
According to Crocker and Timmons, Critical care nursing was a special unit of nursing that had advanced knowledge and skills relevant to the changing modern world. The definition obtained from the argument is that technological advancement in the field of nursing was critically important in the modern world. It further adds that technology plays an important role in the advancements and diagnosing of modern-day diseases. The literature focuses on innovative medical technology that has been developed to assist in areas such as mechanical ventilation. Consequently, innovative technology is a new factor that can assist a critical care nurse to carry out mechanical activities and make work easier in performing assessments. Also, technology is meant to increase the efficiency of the nurses in terms of availability, quality of service as well as activeness. On the other end, they argued that nurses need to reconfigure themselves to the technological world rather than focusing on class earned theoretical knowledge. Also, the essence of technology is to bring out the best practices of the nursing career. (Crocker, 2009)
Lakanmaa and Leino-Kilpi divided critical care nursing using five main domains based on performance and competency. The five domains include; attitude, knowledge base, skill base, nursing experience base, and personality base. This was a further development that they discovered that the personality of the nurse had a big impact on the service delivery to the patients. For instance, a hardworking and an active nurse would rightly fit into a critical care department. This is because the domain of personality works hand in hand with the other four domains to provide a successful nursing career. According to this research, the knowledge and skills obtained work together to obtain a certain level of experience. The attitude comes as a factor of improving all the mentioned domains. From the drawn conclusive idea, the performance and competence requirements of critical nursing depended on multi-dimensional requirements that are built from the five discovered domains. Also, the personality domain should be highly esteemed in considerations of work performance. (Lakanmaa & Leino-Kilpi, 2012)
According to Nesbitt & Goode, critical care nursing is a field of nursing that is beneficial to both the critically ill patient and the working nurse. On one end, the patient should be receiving the utmost care and the nurse should be learning and gaining experience to provide better treatment in the future. For instance, the literature presented gives an illustration of the health factor of a working nurse. It further adds that the nurse should not prioritize the needs of the patient to the extent of depriving him or herself a right to healthy lifestyles. The common problem faced in critical care nursing includes deprivation of sleep by Intensive Care Unit nurses. As a result, the health of the nurse should also be considered in his or her working environment. Therefore, they add that critical care nursing should be perceived as a two-way channel of benefiting from the situation. Also, the competency of a critical care nurse is very instrumental to the performance of quality service which directly depends on the health of the nurse. (Nesbitt & Goode, 2014)
Conclusion
Critical care nursing is a very important nursing role in modern society. This means that all factors should be considered to achieve an efficient and quality working environment. This field ought to provide an opportunity for the mutual benefits of both the patient and the nurse. In other words, critical care nursing is a special field of nursing that provides better opportunities for improving the nursing career. For instance, there is further adding of technological knowledge and skill. This equips a practicing nurse with better tools for fighting and treating upcoming complications.