Questions to Contemplate

Contemplate the following questions:

·         What do you consider elements of quality care when receiving healthcare services?

·         What do you consider elements of quality care as a professional nurse?

·         Are the two similar or different?

Unfortunately, at least for this exercise, I have not really been a patient in a hospital, so I will depend mostly on when I have visited family members in the hospital and the care that I have received from visits to a care provider's office.  One aspect of care that I consider as quality when receiving healthcare services is care that is timely.  Timely, to me does not necessarily mean quick.  I think that timely just means that I have been given realistic time frames for things to be done and that those time frames have been upheld.  Another aspect that I find import is informative care.  I like to be in "the know" about all the details of what is currently happening and what the plan is going forward.  Many times, there this is a "business as usual" mentality for most health care providers and I don't know if they just assume everyone knows what is going on or if they just don't think about it, but most while it may be a normal day for the provider, this is most likely a very not normal day for the patient.  Lastly, professionalism is another thing that I consider as an element of quality care.   

As a professional nurse, I consider a number of things as elements of quality care.  I would say that as a professional nurse, I need to have professionalism.  My mannerisms need to show that I take my job and care for the patients as my only priority, no matter what else might be going on in my life.  Another aspect that I find important as a professional nurse is to be caring.  Quality care cannot be done without "care."  I go out of my way to try to serve each and every patient that I come across.  Even though the patients aren't always pleasant, I try to go above and beyond with each and every patient.  One of the last things that I try to do as a professional nurse is to use evidence based practice in everything that I do with my patients.  In providing quality care, I need to have the most up to date and accurate way to provide care that currently exists in whatever it is that I'm doing as a nurse.  

I would say that these two are very much interrelated and intersect completely at multiple points.  I would say that they are only slightly different.  The differences are probably very minute.  I believe that they are significantly similar and that they actually are essentially the same thing with different titles.  Being timely and informative is another way to care.  Evidence based practice is also another way that I show that I care and that I want the best for each and every patient.  All in all, the things that a patient wants is basically the things that a true professional nurse wants for the patient.