By Levi Leo
The modern healthcare industry is home to a range of healthcare professionals, from specialists to local GPs. Nurse leaders are a significant part of the healthcare industry, but are they recognized for the value they add to patients’ lives and the industry as a whole?
An area where nurse leaders can have a particular impact is when it comes to women’s health. Their hands-on relationships with women in various scenarios give them an understanding of this healthcare niche. From their perspective, they can become powerful advocates to improve women’s experiences in healthcare environments.
In this article, we cover a few topics relevant to many women in today’s society.
The uniqueness of nurse leaders in modern healthcare systems
Although all healthcare workers may perform their duties to assist patients, nurse leaders are in a class of their own. They do much more than simply provide a service.
As well as being caregivers, nurse leaders are often the ones who connect with communities and come to know their specific needs. This can be in terms of health, but they also face cultural elements that can impact if and how community members utilize available healthcare services.
Armed with such knowledge, they can identify areas of a healthcare system that need to change in order to make healthcare solutions more culturally acceptable, accessible, and inviting for the people in their community. Women are still categorized as a ‘vulnerable’ group in various countries and societies, and it’s to these vulnerable groups that nurse leaders must pay special attention.
Important roles nurse leaders can play in modern healthcare
Common challenges that women face today range from STDs to gender discrimination, gender violence, and reproductive health problems. This is true for socially and economically disadvantaged groups, but one shouldn’t underestimate the challenges any woman faces, no matter their culture or country.
Nurse leaders can help turn the tide and work towards more success stories in the following ways.
Nurse leaders as educators
Access to information can change how women manage self-care and their own healthcare. For example, knowing about the tell-tale signs of certain health conditions can help them be more proactive in seeking necessary treatment.
Healthcare providers such as doctors don’t always have or take the time to include education during routine checkups. Nurse leaders often have the privilege of spending extended periods of time with patients in scenarios such as accompanying patients while tests are being performed, dressing wounds, and general health monitoring, such as taking blood pressure or glucose levels.
These moments offer the opportunity to educate patients about more than just the activity at hand. It’s vital that nurse leaders make a conscious decision to include education in their communication with patients whenever they spend time with them.
Nurse leaders can take this one step further and also prompt the patients to become role players in managing their health. This can include teaching them how to take care of themselves at home when a doctor or nurse isn’t around. Educating family members can improve the scenario even more. All of this makes them less reliant on healthcare workers, so if they aren’t able to reach their local clinic or doctor, their health won’t suffer.
Nurse leaders and inclusivity
Cultural differences, discrimination, financial pressures, and many other factors result in quality healthcare not being available for all women.
Environmental factors, cost of treatments, interactions with healthcare providers, and timelines between identifying needs and accessing care and solutions are all significant contributing factors to the patient experience. Aspiring nurse leaders can undertake training, such as an online DNP in Executive Nurse Leadership, to learn how to make vast improvements within healthcare settings. The program from Baylor University covers areas such as creating excellence in professional environments and has 100% online coursework, meaning it is ideal for those needing flexibility. Nurse leaders are more likely to identify areas where change is necessary to make healthcare more satisfactory and effective. For example, patients may feel more understood and open to receiving healthcare if the condition is explained in ordinary language rather than in complicated terms.
To spark this change, networking with other healthcare professionals and pursuing additional training can give nurse leaders a platform from which to operate. Becoming a nurse leader or executive can demand more respect and give you a voice; not all nurse leaders feel they have.
Using this platform to bring about change in policies and systems can result in a more inclusive approach to women’s healthcare and offer many women a better patient experience.
The additional benefit to this type of advocacy is that more women will feel comfortable coming forward about their healthcare needs. Especially in terms of preventative care, this can improve general health while reducing healthcare costs for households, a country’s healthcare department, and even the economy.
Preventative and reproductive health services
In most communities, reproductive health concerns affect many women’s lives. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Cervical cancer
- Ovarian and vaginal cancer
- Endometriosis
- Interstitial Cystitis
- PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
- Uterine Fibroids.
Even for something as daunting and life-changing as cervical cancer, many women aren’t aware that it’s often preventable. But screening and starting treatment in time is vital. Either because of being uninformed or because of cultural bias, women often wait too long before asking for help. This is another example of the importance of making healthcare environments more inclusive and inviting.
There’s often a disconnect between parties simply because of inefficient communication or providers not grasping women’s perspectives. Nurse leaders can play an integral role in changing this. For one thing, they can serve as mediators between the women in need of treatment and healthcare providers.
Nurse leaders can also take hands with institutions that have the ability to make treatments more accessible, whether it be doctors, community leaders, volunteers, or other entities. For example, making cancer screenings free and available close to less fortunate community members can increase the number of women receiving this life-saving service.
Nurse Leaders shape inclusive healthcare for women in a dynamic world
In a changing world, it’s important that someone voices the importance of healthcare that caters to all patients’ needs. Nurse leaders are positioned in such a way that they have the ability to identify challenges many women face and also to initiate change to bridge the problems.
As advocates, nurse leaders today actually stand to change generations of women’s lives. After all, helping to assist and enlighten today’s women will empower these ladies to pass on a new point of view on healthcare to their own daughters. Starting such a domino effect is enough reason for today’s caretakers to at least try to teach, change, and empower.
