Domains of Knowledge Required for Excellent Nursing Care and How They Link Together to Provide a Direction for Practice.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the domains of knowledge required for excellent nursing care, and how these domains link together to provide direction for practice. The domains of knowledge that I believe are of utmost importance when providing nursing care is caring, ethical, science-based, social, clinical, individual, cultural and relational. All of these concepts integrate together to provide holistic care, and serve as a guide in providing positive and competent bedside care to patients (see Figure 1). It enables a nurse to decide what to assess, how to make sense of data, how to plan, how to enact a plan, and how to evaluate whether the plan has had the intended outcome. .
Caring is knowledge that is a product of one's culture, values, experiences, and relationships with others. Caring involves trying to understand your patients health/illness experience, being emotionally present for your patient, doing for your patient what they may not be able to do for themselves, and helping your patient get through an event or transition. It also involves motivation, which is enabling your patient to cope with his or her illness or disability, or to recover fully and perhaps enjoy an increased level of wellness and quality of life. A nurse can accomplish these tasks by comforting and listening to their patients, providing presence and getting to know their patient. .
Ethical knowledge guides our decision-making and is incorporated into everything that we do. It also aids in prioritizing daily tasks, and in making good, appropriate and responsible decisions. The code of ethics is an important resource that may be used in order to provide safe, competent, and ethical nursing. The code of ethics was designed to guide and direct nursing practice and to promote professional nursing practice.