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Biomedical subjects

L Hockey

Publications and source records attributed to L Hockey.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1978

The future nurse: selection and training; autonomy; should her health-care role by modified for future patient demands?

This paper was presented in the context of an international interdisciplinary conference on Priorities in Health Care. The focus of the paper is the relationship between the nurse's role and the demands of patients, now and in the future. The incongruence between patients' needs and their demands is discussed and the question is raised as to whether the nurse's skills and knowledge currently acquired will be appropriate to meet patients' needs and demands in the future. Future patient needs and demands are not the only external pressures on changes in the nurse's role; advances in medical treatment and technology and changing roles of other health professionals are others. The paper highlights the dilemma between the profession having to give way to such external pressures or the risk of preparing nurses for irrelevant roles. A case is made for greater interchangeability of first level health care workers through a common portal of entry. It is suggested that diversion into the various professional fields should occur after the foundation course to health care and suitable counselling. Among the top level professionally qualified nurses should be both generalists and specialists. A speciality of nursing generalism, as a parallel with general medical practice, is advocated. A plea is made for a liberating rather than a restricting interpretation of professionalism so that necessary changes in the nurse's role can be initiated and directed by the profession rather than being forced upon it by external pressures.

Education, Nursing↗
PubMed1976

Dying at home.

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Aged↗
PubMed1976

The nurse's contribution to care.

The concept of health needs as envisaged by the nurse and the challenge of the changing setting to nursing are explored with regard to the nurse's contribution to care against the background of change. Advances in medical science and technology tend to result in increasing specialization in health care and a complex organizational structure for its delivery. These and other factors tend towards fragmentation of care. Care is the concern of all health workers and needs collaboration based on mutual trust and respect. The nurse makes not the only but a unique contribution to care. In the primary care team she has information about the patient as a 'whole' person and about his or her family on the basis of which she can assess total needs and make appropriate arrangements for these to be met. She communicates with the medical and other members of the health professions in the interest of coordinated and total care, including continuity of care between home and hospital, where appropriate. In hospital, nurses are the only professional workers providing a continuous and direct caring service. Care is a concept implying a measure of constancy and continuity. These two aspects, reinforced by communication, coordination, explanation, education and empathy, are some of the main components in the nurse's contribution to care.

Humans↗