Nursing exists as an established science that the public widely recognizes. For Florence Nightingale the concept of nursing profession emerged as an art form. The essay examines nursing both in scientific and artistic contexts.
Introduction
Various scholars have developed dissertations and thesis on the dispute that exists within nursing theoretical models about whether the discipline comes from artistic expertise or scientific understanding. Nursing practices care through concepts of patient-to-nurse relationship development together with communicational methods. Task-oriented methodical approaches take up most of the work time because they originate from medical and research fundamentals. The difficulty emerges from sustaining ethical care practices throughout medical operations since these treatments need to follow formal regulations. The nursing profession applies scientific research and theoretical principles while insisting on delivering caring services during all nurse-patient encounters.
Nursing as a Science
Nursing can be classified as science through its implementation of scientific information as one of its fundamental elements. The profession makes full use of evidence-based practices along with significant technological implementation. The activity of nurses who conduct research and think critically classifies nursing as a scientific field.
Nursing is classified as a science because its fundamental principles apply scientific information about human beings and their environment to assist patients’ well-being. Nursing discipline employs healthcare information regarding human health processes derived from theoretical research foundations. Different opinions exist about whether nursing belongs to basic science or applied science category. The term applied science accurately describes nursing because this field uses multiple concepts from various fields without establishing a consistent theoretical approach or research method framework (Barrett, 2017). The methodical way nursing obtains knowledge and deploys it to ensure safety can be used as evidence that nursing constitutes a scientific practice.
The science of nursing demands three essential components which are skillsets and awareness with efficiency. The modern nursing approach demands scientists to implement recent discoveries into clinical healthcare practices alongside supporting technologies. To become proficient in nursing professionals must build extensive educational and clinical capabilities that show themselves in their critical thinking abilities with their choice-making and evidence-based healthcare practices (Palos, 2014). Clinical competency depends on nurses mastering the process of research discovery according to their training. The maintenance of research findings across different practice-related fields that include medical breakthroughs with efficient administrative practices allows nurses to demonstrate their lifelong commitment to learning.
Evidence-based practice serves as the primary convincing evidence that nursing meets the criteria for being a science. Medical evidence emerges from research studies that healthcare professionals develop methodically into clinical protocols. Each decision about patient diagnosis and treatment must be efficient in order to contribute to the delivery of care. Evidence-based practice depends on using credible research from various studies that meet established criteria. The technique of methodology development requires information collection from patients and practitioners through the entire process. Nurses depend on established frameworks for their work but experts encourage the addition of medical models to practice by developing research methodology understanding (Dunphy, Windland-Brown, Porter & Thomas, 2015).
Nurses who work effectively must deliver more than just the assignment within their realm of responsibility. Nursing demands professionals with acute perceptiveness regarding patient context to deliver meaningful support for patient requirements. The comprehensive process of offering care when a patient recovers from sickness to health represents an artistic achievement. Art functions at both an outcome-based level and also represents a systematic order of development. Health of a recovered patient serves as the final product in nursing practice. The complex care process depends largely on a patient-provider exchange which entails both information exchange and medical intervention delivery. The creator of modern nursing theory and practice Florence Nightingale explained that nursing encompasses more than medicine administration because it involves the artistic delivery of individualized patient care (Henry, 2017).
Nursing art describes the professional representation of compassion and concern along with commitment and communication and several alternative non-technical competencies. Patients along with their families assign more value to these caring abilities than the nursing science although they may not identify it as such. Health systems transitioning into patient-centered care make nursing competency reliant on the art elements (Palos, 2014). Patient satisfaction and safety along with well-being after hospital discharge rely significantly on nurses who show compassion and practice good communication skills for aspects including medication adherence.
The fundamental structure found in nursing models starts with diagnosing patients while creating an appropriate response to develop a therapeutic plan before evaluating results. The Circle of Caring model builds upon traditional nursing principles by incorporating various artistic aspects which nurses are known for. A holistic assessment enables nurses to create deeper understanding of patients by evaluating their needs alongside their values as well as weaknesses together with their social health determinants. The healthcare staff initially evaluates patient concerns then directly addresses those concerns by understanding which treatment the patient has received.
Creative and holistic approaches define therapeutic planning because health professionals work with individual patient uniqueness to combine traditional approaches with alternative treatment options. The final stage of assessment utilizes standardized quantified measures together with evaluations of patient and community satisfaction (Dunphy et al., 2015). The different elements enable practitioners to develop their artistry through methods of nursing such as empathy and patient communication and advocacy.
Nursing as an Art
The practice of nursing qualifies as an art because nurses need both creativity and empathy and intuitive skills to provide professional care. Key soft skills employed by nurses involve compassion together with concern and effective communication skills that directly stem from the art aspect of nursing.
To achieve success in their practice nurses must exceed simple task execution. Nursing as a profession demands clear intuition to both understand patient meaning and empathize with them before acting as their advocate. The entire process of delivering care between a sick patient and healthy recovery represents art both literally and figuratively. The definition of art applies to both physical results as well as the ongoing creative procedures. Health achievement of recovered patients constitutes the product focus of nursing practice. The intricate method of care functions as the process while maintaining a healthy relationship where patients exchange information and receive treatment. Nursing extends beyond medication administration according to Florence Nightingale since it means delivering holistic care through the art to individual patients (Henry, 2017).
Nursing art embodies the display of compassion combined with care and dedication along with communication and multiple additional non-professional abilities. Patients and families value care-related attributes more than scientific nursing knowledge even if they do not recognize these attributes as such. The health care system transformation to patient-centric care made nursing competency reliant on the art element (Palos, 2014). The ability of nurses to exhibit empathy and communicate well produces major improvements in patient satisfaction and protection in addition to better health while patients follow their hospital discharge instructions.
Nursing models maintain standard operational methods which include problem identification followed by proper response creation as well as therapeutic planning and outcome assessment. The Circle of Caring model adopts the fundamental framework of nursing practice by incorporating different “artistic” nursing domains. The assessment approaches enable nurses to gain an encompassing understanding of patients through the evaluation of their requirements and personal values along with their health limitations and health determinants based on their social conditions.
The nursing team makes a deliberate effort to discover and solve whatever issues patients have about their treatment. Therapeutic planning incorporates holistic methods to design unique and artistic treatment approaches using alternative therapies and combined efforts with traditional methods for each patient. Dunphy et al. (2015) explain that the final phase of assessment involves quantitative measurement combined with qualitative checks of community members’ satisfaction with care outcomes. Practicing such nursing artful aspects as empathy and patient communication and advocacy is possible through all these aspects.
Nursing as an Art and Science
Nightingale’s ideas established the necessity of artful nursing for delivering complete patient care. The professional literature rarely mentions this concept even though it holds great importance. According to Rahim et al. (2016) proactive application of creative methods by nurses leads to better outcomes for patients regarding responsiveness along with improved healing and satisfaction. High professional demands and many responsibilities make it difficult for nurses to develop and implement artistic components because they have limited time for these activities. Macro-and-micro-level aspects of nursing care depend heavily on intuition and demeanor which makes assessment and learning of these variables difficult. Although these factors function as primary forces in nurse practice they enhance both care quality and patient satisfaction (Palos, 2014). Nurses must establish harmonious relationships between their examination expertise and their artistic nursing capabilities.
Nursing autonomy and healthcare environment influence is directly supported through maintaining a perfect balance. The integration of this system helps both to add value through nursing input and to enable nurse participation. Nursing independence flourishes because nurse practitioners optimize methodical techniques which secures patient safety and meets patient needs and exhibits empathetic care. Through self-governance practitioners obtain the ability to shape healthcare policies as well as protect patient rights.
Conclusion
The scientific research-based practice of nursing combines with the art of unquantifiable patient communication elements such as showing empathy to patients. The current model of nursing practice depends on these two elements to achieve quality patient outcomes. Patient-centered medical care now includes standards that extend beyond scientific treatment approaches because they necessitate artistic communication methods with patients.