According to PAHO, “the role of nursing encompasses the autonomous and collaborative care of people of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or healthy and in all settings”,[1] In other words, they are in charge of promoting safe spaces for all people, supporting patients to maintain or regain optimal health.
Nursing differs from other areas of health, since they are in charge of the continuous care of patients during the training process as well as in the professional field, their most important functions and roles are:
Caregiver role:
This is one of the most important roles that nurses develop, since it is in charge of providing partial or total care to their patients, supporting them to do daily and everyday tasks that can become difficult due to health problems or recovery processes from surgeries or disorders. .
In this case, the nurse maintains the dignity of the patient by providing specialized care.
Communicator Role:
This person is in charge of providing an excellent communication channel with the patient, their family members and the rest of the medical team involved in the process. He is the one who possesses and understands assertive communication techniques to improve the physical and mental health conditions of the patient.
This communication must be impeccable in all aspects, whether in writing or speaking, since they are the main key to giving continuity to a treatment or not.
Decision Making Role:
This role is considered the most difficult, since it is in charge of making decisions based on critical, emotional and physical analysis to provide greater benefit to the patient. At this point, the aim is to advise the patient regarding their physical or mental situation, identify possible situations that require resolution and catalog them depending on the urgency, plan strategies that lead to fulfill the objective of offering safe spaces for patients and make an evaluation of them.
Defender Role:
The nurse’s primary responsibility is to defend the rights of patients, which is why they always support the decisions made by the patient, if they have the capacity to act. Otherwise, nurses are in charge of making the best decisions that benefit the physical and mental health of the patient.
Counselor role:
Accompaniment and advice is one of the most vital processes when there is a patient, since it supports patients to recognize the current situation in order to seek strategies for continuous improvement. Nurses are able to provide emotional, psychological and intellectual support.
All these roles are extremely important, which is why almost all nursing agents, if not all, have them, although some have developed some more than others due to their personalities and the current management situation. Some nurses may be more comfortable with the role of counselor than with decision-making, while others will prefer the opposite.