Various Issues and Trends in Contemporary Nursing Practice

Various Issues and Trends in Contemporary Nursing Practice Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Various Issues and Trends in Contemporary Nursing Practice Contemporary healthcare settings bear dynamic trends and issues that demand insightful inputs to address. Partly, the issues and trends that healthcare faces presently stem from the changes that the industry is undergoing. Issues such as an increase in the number of people seeking healthcare services, advancements in technology, pandemics, aging, and even scarcity of healthcare professionals affect the nature and quality of care that healthcare facilities offer. The above trends and issues have rendered decision-making a challenge to healthcare professionals. That is, the decisions in contemporary healthcare settings must accommodate the influence of the trends and issues lest they are rendered irrelevant. To address the challenges, inputs have been invested in equipping healthcare professionals with knowledge and skills to address the issues. In this analysis, emphasis is put on exploring trends and issues in contemporary nursing practice and their relative ethical, clinical, cultural, spiritual, and political implications. An insightful understanding of trends and issues in contemporary nursing practice is vital to the practitioners who must be skilled and equipped to steer client-centered care, reflective practice, clinical reasoning and critical thinking, communication, as well as leadership and decision-making to steer nursing toward its projected objectives. Client-Centered Care One of the most notable issues/trends in contemporary nursing practice is the drive toward client-centered care. Client-centered care is a holistic practice that healthcare professionals and facilities are incorporating to emphasize inputs into what the patient requires. This type of care is marked by the needs, preferences, and values of the patient (Zwack et al., 2024). To that effect, client-centered care demands that all the decisions are made to match what the client prefers. Patient or client-centered care has been developed in place of the traditional provider-centered care models that did not involve the inputs or needs of the patients. The new models demand that patients be involved in every step of care that they are receiving. Such a care practice comes with various benefits including patient empowerment in which patients are actively engaged in the care that they receive. This practice also enhances the personalization of the services offered to the client (Zhao et al., 2024). That is, patient-centered care emphasizes the conventional understanding that each patient needs unique care to steer the best satisfaction outcomes. The other benefit that comes with this care model is trust and satisfaction. With all the stakeholders involved actively in the care process, patients are often convinced that the care they are receiving is the best. Finally, patient-centered care also comes with improved outcomes for the patient. Outcomes like reduced hospital readmissions, enhanced recovery, and improved overall well-being of the patient are often realized with the implementation of patient-centered care. Additionally, client-centered care also comes with notable ethical implications that are worth exploring before implementation. One of the primary ethical principles in contemporary nursing is the autonomy of the patient (Pepito et al., 2023). This principle demands that patients be accorded the opportunity to partake in decisions that affect their health. The principle of autonomy also extends to demanding respect for the patient’s independence. As such, client-centered care supports autonomy when it encourages providers to involve patients in all the key decisions. This autonomy also allows patients the opportunity to accept or refuse the care provided. The second ethical principle of nursing that showcases attachments to client-centered care is confidentiality (Zwack et al., 2024). Healthcare professionals are guided by the principles of patient-centered care to protect personal and sensitive information about patients. Ultimately, patient-centered care also affects the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. In nursing, the provider must find a balance between doing good and avoiding harm as they honor the patient’s preferences (Choi & Rajaguru, 2024). Unfortunately, finding such a balance may lead to some ethical dilemmas in cases where the nurse understands that some of the preferred decisions are not in the best interest of the patient. Ultimately, decision-making linked to client-centered care must come with insightful cultural and spiritual considerations. Cultural beliefs often influence the behaviors of various patients toward some healthcare services. For instance, cultures vary in decisions on family involvements, dietary practices, or medical interventions. On the same note, spiritual beliefs can influence the scope of decisions that individuals make in healthcare settings. Religions such as Christianity, for instance, have influential teachings about how people should perceive illness and treatment. As some patients may be influenced by their religious beliefs to partake in various medical practices, they can also be influenced not to engage in others. To address the dilemmas arising from balancing spiritual and cultural beliefs with medical decisions, patients should be subjected to full information about the decisions. Additionally, healthcare practitioners must incorporate cultural practices such as traditional healing in the treatment regimen if such is the request of the patients. Leadership and Decision-Making Leadership and decision-making are the other critical issues and trends that stakeholders in healthcare must understand to steer their organizations to success. In nursing, leadership implies the ability of a nurse to guide and inspire other healthcare professionals to participate in organizational goals and objectives (Choi & Rajaguru, 2024). Some of the goals and objectives that demand the input of leadership include enhancing patie...