Question

Based on selected form of artistic expression, prepare a paper including an artistic expression. 
Select an artistic form for representing your personal perspective on caring. Artistic expressions can be a drawing, sculpture, collage, poem, short stories, song, or dance. 
Introduction includes general statements on caring as a nursing concept and why this concept is important to the practice and profession. Identify sections of the paper. Provide support from scholarly literature.
Provide your personal definition of caring. Incorporate principles of holistic care. Provide citations from scholarly nursing literature that support and are congruent with your definition of caring.
Explain what artistic expression you chose and how it represents caring.
Provide a summary of key concepts presented in the paper. Provide a self-reflection regarding what was learned from completing this assessment.
Title page, running head, body of paper, and reference page must follow APA guidelines as found in the 6th edition of the manual. This includes the use of headings for each section or topic of the paper (one deduction for each type of APA style error). Ideas and information that come from scholarly sources must be cited and referenced correctly. Three (3) scholarly literature references/sources are used which must b e within the last 5 years (2012 to 2017). Number of references (Note: Students are to use at least three (3) scholarly references.). Use references/sources that are within the last 5 years (2012 to 2017). Turnitin score must be no less than 15%.
Rules of grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation are followed and consistent with formal written work as found in the 6th edition of the APA manual.

Action

Artistic Expression

            The concept of caring and its associated attributes has been embedded as a fundamental professional value in the nursing field since the onset of the Nightingale era. At the time, nursing care was primarily viewed as the act of attending to the physical needs of a patient and his/her environment. In addition, it encompassed the qualities of kindness, gentleness, and sympathy in advancing general physical care. However, the concept of care in nursing has gradually evolved since the Nightingale period as nurses have started placing more focus and emphasis on the emotional and psychological welfare of patients while still upholding physical care as an important aspect. Various studies that have been conducted on this issue and the findings revealed that caring can be placed into the following five distinct categories: needs assessment, planning for care, responding to needs (intervention), evaluation of nurses’ actions (validation) and interactional attitudes which yield positive growth (Swanson, 2012). When all these components are brought together, they constitute what is termed as “nursing care.”Therefore, caring is summed up as the specific interpersonal process which encompasses professional knowledge, skills, personal maturity, accountability and sensitivity of nurses; which ultimately results in the safety, support and the fulfillment of the biological, psychological and social needs of the patient (Lusk & Fater, 2013).

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            In the nursing profession and practice, caring has been found to improve the patient outcomes substantially. The holistic approach to nursing is an embodiment of caring which emphasizes the art of compassionate care to improve the outcomes, especially patient satisfaction. Swanson (2012) asserts that this approach to holistic care should mirror the classical tenets of beneficence, maleficence, justice, and autonomy as well as the biomedical ethics to nursing practice. Moreover, some of the aspects of care, compassion and meeting patient needs have been established as catalysts to the improvement of patient outcomes. For instance, compassion helps reassure the patients that their concerns and conditions are being heard and acted upon accordingly. When a patient feels that a nurse actually cares, he/she lets down his/her guard, allows him/her in and offers you small details that might lead to the diagnosis of a disease or information that can help improve the quality of care being extended (Morgan & Yoder, 2012).According to Swanson (2012), this is the very essence of nursing.

            My definition of caring revolves around those facilitating, assistive and supportive behaviors and practices towards a person or a group which is aimed at promoting health, preventing diseases and facilitating healing. From my perspective, caring is a good way for nurses to show their patients that they are present and ready to help them through their recovery processes. Both the touch and listening factors are involved in advancing care for patients. The latter demonstrates caring by capturing the nurse’s full attention to the interests of the patient and fostering trust and communication between the two entities to improve patient outcomes. On the other hand, the former entails reaching out and establishing contact with patients to reassure them of your involvement in the healing process.This strongly concurs with the beneficence principle which implies doing that which is in the best interest of the patient.Consequently, patient satisfaction is achieved in the long-run. Shirley and Sanders (2013) posit that patient satisfaction is achieved by enhancing the level of transparency, consistency, and interaction between a patient’s expectations regarding care quality and the actual healthcare service received. If these conditions are met, then all-inclusive care is achieved since patient satisfaction is, in fact, one of the principal objectives of the holistic approach of caring in nursing (Shirley & Sanders, 2013; Ahmad et al., 2012).

            The artistic form of expression I chose is a song entitled “How to Save A Life” by a band known as The Fray. The song is not specifically addressed to any particular group, but from my analysis, it was written to portray the importance of caring for people who might be ailing or are faced with certain psychological health issues. Thus, it resonates well with members of the nursing fraternity.In an interview, the lead singer of the song, Isaac Slade, said that the song wasinfluenced by his experience while he was working as a counselor at a camp for troubled teenagers. He was paired up with a 17-year-old youngster who was a musician and had a plethora of issues stemming from drug abuse to cutting himself in an attempt to numb the pain of being misunderstood and neglected. His family and friends tried to intervene by threatening him, yet all he needed was care and support. The verses of the song capture this intervention by the adults in his life, who they were all unable to save him just because they failed to care for and support him well. This form of art represents caring in that it presents a way for nurses to identify the signs and markers that point to someone who is in need of help. Furthermore, it helps to reinforce the premise that effective communication is imperative to advancing holistic care.

            In conclusion, it is evident that the concept of holistic care encompasses both caring as well as other attributes such as compassion and sympathy. The comprehensiveprocess of caring is characterized by specific dimensions of professional behavior and assistive components that facilitate efforts to meet the biological, physical, psychological and social needs of a patient (Lusk & Fater, 2013). As a nursing student and an aspiring nurse, I have learned the importance of integrating caring into practice and upholding all the principles that go along with this. This is primarily because caring is significant to the patients and has the potential to impact both their immediate welfare and long-term recovery.

References

Ahmad, I., Nawaz, A., Khan, S., Khan, H., Rashid, M. A., & Khan, M. H. (2012). Predictors of patient satisfaction. Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences, 9(2).

Lusk, J. M., & Fater, K. (2013, April). A Concept Analysis of Patient‐Centered Care. Nursing Forum, 48(2), 89-98.

Morgan, S., & Yoder, L. H. (2012). A concept analysis of person-centered care. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 30(1), 6-15.

Shirley, E. D., & Sanders, J. O. (2013). Patient satisfaction: implications and predictors of success. JBJS, 95(10), e69.

Swanson, K. M. (2012). What is known about caring in nursing science. Caring in Nursing Classics: An Essential Resource, 59.