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Rewards and Challenges in Modern Nursing Practice

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Rewards and Challenges in Modern Nursing Practice

Nursing is a profession that encompasses many different meanings and many different

types. While some may call nursing science, others may call it art (Taylor et al., 2018). The

Fundamentals of Nursing textbook defines nursing as a profession that uses education and skills

to promote health and to provide care for people in a variety of practice settings (Taylor et al.,

2018). All jobs and professions can be both rewarding yet challenging at the same time. The

purpose of this paper is to explore the rewards and challenges associated with the nursing

profession.

Rewards

An intrinsic reward of being a nurse is that it gives meaning and purpose to those in the

profession. As mentioned above, how it gives meaning and purpose may be different to those in

different areas or cultures. To Sophie Makwangwala, being a nurse meant everything to her. She

shared with researchers about how she felt so proud to be a nurse and becoming a nurse proved

her worth to her society (Wall et al., 2015). Sophie is from Malawi, Africa, and in that

community, there aren’t many women in professional roles. By becoming a nurse and being able

to serve and care for her people, Sophie feels like she has found her identity and found purpose

in her life (Wall et al., 2015). Through her career, Sophie has been able to impact the community

and save many lives. As a result, Sophie has great pride that she has been able to love the

community in the way that she has (Wall et al., 2015).

Another intrinsic reward of being a nurse is the ability to help people outside of the

hospital setting. In a study to identify the challenges and rewards of pediatric palliative care,

participants noted that one of the great rewards of being a nurse is that through their education

and experience, they are able to help and care for themselves and loved ones outside of the
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hospital (Taylor et al., 2017). An example given by one of the participants is that since everyone

has or will experience difficult life circumstances, the coping techniques against stressors the

nurse has learned in school becomes useful in those situations (Taylor et al., 2017). By that

reasoning, nurses can help those in need in the public that either don’t need or can’t go to the

hospital.

An extrinsic reward of being a nurse is the freedom to work in any specialty of nursing

with the proper training and education. After graduating from nursing school and receiving a

nursing license, the nurse is then able to investigate specialized fields of nursing. This allows for

variety and diversity among registered nurses. This is very beneficial for those nurses who might

work in a unit they may end up not liking. These nurses won’t have to give up nursing as a

whole; they’d be able to look into other units they’d feel more comfortable working at (Taylor et

al., 2017).

Challenge and Solutions

With the benefits and rewards come many challenges faced in the nursing profession. The

challenges that are faced may directly corollate with the outcome of care and efficiency among

the nurses in the workplace. According to the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education

and Practice (NACNEP), one of the challenges seen today is the shortage of nurses and its

effects in healthcare (Taylor et al., 2018). The purpose of NACNEP is to identify critical

challenges to nursing in the 21st century and another problem is that there is a growing

population of hospitalized patients who are older and more accurately ill (Taylor et al., 2018).

What complicates this issue is the fact that there is already an existing shortage of nurses and the

likelihood of a worsening nurse shortage (Taylor et al., 2018). The American Journal of Nursing

predicts that the United States faces a shortage of more than 1 million nurses by 2022 (Zolot,
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2017). To combat this issue, a collaboration involving the University Hospital system, Cleveland

State University, and Cuyahoga Community College are working together to increase the

number of nurses and avert a possible nursing shortage in Northeast Ohio (Zolot, 2017).

According to Timothy Gaspar, the dean of the CSU School of Nursing, financial barriers

are the number one issue holding students back from getting a BSN (Zolot, 2017). In searching

for answers, the three institutions have come together to try making it possible for more students

to earn a BSN by putting focus on increasing the quality of life, providing professional

opportunities for nurses and increasing the quality of care for every patient they care for (Zolot,

2017). To help with this, the University Hospital system created the Nursing Scholars program,

awarding 20 CSU and 20 CCC students a $12,000 tuition support contract while Cuyahoga

Community College will offer their graduates enrolling in the CSU RN-to-BSN a $3,000

scholarship (Zolot, 2017). These efforts were put in place in hopes to prevent a nursing shortage

in the near future to provide better health care to the Northeast Ohio area (Zolot, 2017).

Another reason that the collaborative exists is to increase mentoring and coaching for

nursing students to help them succeed and complete the nursing program to receive their

Bachelor of Science in nursing degree (Zolot, 2017). Along with finances, completion of the

program due to lack of performance in the program seems to be a problem and CSU hopes to

help in this regard by providing mentoring and support services throughout the program (Zolot,

2017). As Gaspar mentioned, the efforts put forth towards this initiative is to try and prepare

against a nursing shortage and produce efficient nurses who can provide quality care (Zolot,

2017).
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Conclusion

Nursing is like any other job, in the sense that people will like and dislike some things

about it. However, nursing is different in that this profession has specific rewards and challenges

to this job that influence past, current, and future nurses. Not one person is the same in this

world. Their ideals, beliefs, and desires are specific to them. While one individual wants a stress-

free life, another individual might be willing to undergo the most difficult of circumstances to

make a difference. The rewards and challenges listed isn’t even close to being complete and

there is much more to be discussed. What is listed just highlights some of the things that make

nursing unique. This remains the same; nurses exist to serve the world through promoting health

and providing care for people who need it.

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References

Taylor, C., Lynn P., Bartlett, J. L. (2018). Fundamentals of nursing (9th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Retrieved from https://coursepoint.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781975101336/

Zolot, J. (2017). Ohio collaborative model proactively addresses the looming nursing shortage.

The American Journal of Nursing, 117(6), p. 14. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000520237.

83901.d7

Wall, B.M., Dhurmah, K., Lamboni, B., Phiri, B.E. (2015). ‘I am a nurse’: Oral histories of

african nurses. The American Journal of Nursing, 115(8), p. 22-32. doi:

10.1097/01.NAJ.0000470396.61855.cd

Taylor J., Aldridge J. (2017). Exploring the rewards and challenges of paediatric palliative care

work: a qualitative study of a multi-disciplinary children’s hospice care team. BMC

Palliat Care, 16(1):73. doi: 10.1186/s12904-017-0254-4