The Psychology in Nursing (Essay Sample)

Psychology in Nursing
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Institution
Psychology in Nursing
The study of psychology involves evaluation of the human behavior in relation to the human mind. In concise, psychology is essential to nursing as it helps nurses to capture the entire patient's behavior. Psychology involves understanding all the communication strategies utilized by patients. The paper will focus on the importance of utilizing psychology in nursing scope.
The Scope of practice infers the activities that registered nurses are educated and authorized to perform. A registered nurse scope of practice is established by the regional college or association, as well as authorities (government) responsible for health care. The regulations outline that registered nurses may practice nursing (Breckman, 2006, p. 31). Nursing in this case refers to health profession in which an individual renders the following services like healthcare for facilitating, maintaining, and restoring health; prevention, treatment, and palliation of diseases and injuries via assessment of the health status, planning, evaluation, and implementation of interventions, as well as coordination of health services. Overall, clinical practice, administration, education, and research are also considered as an essential part of practice for registered nurses.
Registered nurses employ their knowledge, skills, and judgment to carry out diverse roles and responsibilities such as coordinating, supervising, monitoring, and evaluating the provision of health services. Registered nurses (RNs) usually employ nursing knowledge and judgment in assessing health needs and providing care to patients (Hunt, n.d., p. 859). Psychology is essential to ensure that the needs provided by nurses in relation to their judgment are accurate. Registered nurses facilitate interventions within a range of settings that require considerable scientific and professional knowledge, skills, and clinical decision making.
Psychology in nursing models may incorporate registered nurses, including clinical nurse specialists. Another model may encompass a combination of RNs, enrolled nurses, or other categories of unlicensed personnel such as assistants in nursing, or personal care assistants. Registered nurses mainly practice autonomously and in partnership with other healthcare personnel in performing nursing functions (Breckman, 2006, p. 31). In addition to being nursing leader in the provision of patient care, RNs also engage in the provision of direct care and case management. RNs are participants, developers, and leaders in quality improvement activities directed at enhancing patient care.
Unlike other professions, nursing is very demanding and needs attention. Nurses need to be able to manage their work load, which they can through proper training and psychology. Nurse workload refers to number of patients cared for by a single nurse (patient-to-nurse ratio) (Nahm, n.d., p. 139). Nurses often face several conflicting challenges embodied in balancing the quality of care versus quantity of patients, prioritizing between elective and emergency caseloads, besides balancing administration and medical responsibilities. Effective management of nursing workload avails better patient care and safety and enhances job satisfaction for the nursing professionals.
In addition, the strong relationship between nursing care and patient outcomes has obliged nurses to define, describe, measure, and cost the nature of their work. Nurses can monitor workloads through the application of information systems combined with quality improvement activities that facilitate the three core elements of quality, skill mix, and cost of nursing care. Undoubtedly, nurses should perceive technology and health informatics as enabling features of practice and managing nursing workload (Breckman, 2006, p. 31).