The importance of nursing care

In direct contact with patients, nursing care professionals are confronted with people of all ages affected by various pathologies that they must be able to help and follow in all circumstances. They serve as a link between the patient and the doctor by performing all the care they deem necessary to ensure their daily well-being or to compensate for any potential loss of autonomy of the patient. The tasks that are exclusively reserved for them are logically numerous and above all very diversified, which can constitute both an attraction and a barrier for students depending on their aspirations. Equipped with tunics, medical scrubs, pants and safety clogs, nurses are an essential figure of the medical staff.

Table of Contents:

• The diversity of nursing care
• Specializations

Whether they practice their profession in a healthcare facility, in a private practice or even at a patient's home in case of home hospitalization, nurses do not only perform purely technical care. They must also succeed in establishing good relationships with patients and their families in order to respond as precisely as possible to their concerns. Nurses are therefore not there simply to respond to a medical prescription, they are also present to accompany their patient both on a moral and physical level.

These professionals may be required to conduct a nursing care project or to implement educational and preventive care. Their skills also include research and processing of scientific data, as well as clinical monitoring of people whose health condition presents risks. It is also up to them to decide whether it is necessary to resort to isolation measures or restraint in very specific cases, but also to assess mental disorders if they have experience in psychiatric nursing care.

The foundation of nursing care obviously involves the ability to provide therapeutic measures following a prescription by performing and adjusting medical treatments. Vaccination falls within the scope of their activity, as does medication preparation and evaluation of the quality of care provided in order to improve their professional practice. Because some of them may later be required to train other aspiring nurses.

A nurse can also choose to follow one of the many existing training programs to then specialize in areas such as anesthesia, pediatrics, operating room or even health management. Since 2019, there has been a specialization called APN (advanced practice nurse), which helps ensure patient care throughout French territory to combat medical deserts. It sits halfway between the mission of a nurse and that of a general practitioner, but requires at least three years of practice as a nurse. Professionals not attracted to hospital working conditions can also turn to very diverse structures by becoming, for example, a military nurse, a private practice nurse, a firefighter nurse, a research nurse, an occupational nurse working within a company, or even a nurse engaged in a humanitarian association.