Nurses play a crucial role in providing care for patients. Nurses not only provide medical services to their patients but can also offer essential non-medical services. The provision of non-medical services is very crucial in providing supportive care to patients.
Nurses can provide empathetic care to their patients while providing essential medical care. Empathetic care plays a vital role in providing emotional support for the patients as they feel free to raise their concerns while still being admitted, and the nurses can provide necessary reassurance for their patients. As a result, the patient’s emotional and psychological health is thus improved (Leng et al., 2022). In addition, nurses are vital in educating and informing patients about the impact of the injury on their health, treatment options, and the post-discharge resources available. For example, nurses can link patients to social support groups that can help equip them with essential physical and emotional skills crucial in promoting recovery for their patients even after discharge (Calhoun et al., 2022). Nurses can also link patients with long-term care facilities equipped to provide modified care for such patients and ease patient’s rehabilitation.
Nurses can also inform their patients of available community resources such as home caregivers, medical equipment, and meal service options and assist them in enrolling in such programs. The programs are crucial after discharge as they allow patients to have caregivers, adequate food, and quality equipment to support their home-based care (Joseph et al., 2023). In addition, nurses can help raise finances for their patients by assisting them in creating a funding program, sorting their insurance benefits, and advocating for donations for multi-trauma patients. Nurses can also help coordinate transportation for the patients after they are discharged, ease their transition, and link them to shelters equipped to provide additional rehabilitation for their patients. Additionally, nurses can provide spiritual care to their patients and engage spiritual leaders in providing additional care. As a result, the provision of spiritual care can serve as a coping mechanism for the patient, thus helping relieve the stress of their health.
Calhoun, C. D., Stone, K. J., Cobb, A. R., Patterson, M. W., Danielson, C. K., & Bendezú, J. J. (2022). The Role of Social Support in Coping with Psychological Trauma: An Integrated Biopsychosocial Model for Posttraumatic Stress Recovery. The Psychiatric Quarterly, 93(4), 949–970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-022-10003-w
Joseph, J. J., Gray, D. M., 2nd, Williams, A., Zhao, S., McKoy, A., Odei, J. B., Brock, G., Lavender, D., Walker, D. M., Nawaz, S., Baker, C., Hoseus, J., Price, T., Gregory, J., & Nolan, T. S. (2023). Addressing non-medical health-related social needs through a community-based lifestyle intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Black Impact program. PloS One, 18(3), e0282103. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282103
Leng, Y., Wu, Y., Wang, Z., Zhou, X., & Liao, J. (2022). A qualitative study exploring barriers and facilitators to establishing nurse-led, multidisciplinary psychological care for trauma patients: experiences from doctors and nurses. BMC Nursing, 21(1), 191. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-00971-6