About patience and ethics

In the United States, the quality of treatment and compassion in health facilities, especially nursing homes, has been a contentious topic (Bradshaw, 2011). Patients’ interests are ignored, and their clinical conditions suffer as a result of a shortage of treatment in nursing practice. Nursing reforms should ensure that nurses’ personalities adjust for the best in order to increase patient outcomes. This paper explores why incorporating patience in the nursing profession and society, in general, is crucial in improving quality of life, as well as how it is an ethical concern. Patience is a key requirement in nursing practice since health practitioners attend to people from all walks of life, with different mannerisms and health conditions. It is therefore important for nurses to understand their patients and even their colleagues and work towards improving each other’s condition. The nature of the nursing field also requires a great deal of patience on the part of physicians due to cases such as patient restraint and informing guardians of their relative’s bad state or death. The virtue of patience enables medical professionals to treat patients and their guardians with compassion. It is a major determinant of care and should therefore be advocated for in the nursing field. According to Bradshaw, nurses should give their patients the level of care which they would like their family members and themselves to receive (2011). Take for instance, informing family members of death of a loved one, physicians should assess the emotional condition of recipients of this news and pass on the news according to the hospital’s guidelines. Nurses should also refrain from restraining patients without the consent of their relatives (Bradshaw, 2011). This will reduce the number of malpractice suits as a result of such patients sustaining injuries as a result.

Patience, Empathy, Care and Compassion

Patience requires putting oneself in other individuals’ conditions to enable the latter to understand people and act according to their best interests. This indicates that the virtue of patience can enable individuals to develop the values of care, compassion and empathy. In the nursing field for instance, we notice that nurses’ character highly influences the quality of services they provide. If these nurses are highly trained to serve diverse cultures in the society, then other than professionalism, patience will be a major area of coverage. This is due to the fact that, many medical conditions and patients require frequent follow ups and understanding for medical practitioners to know how best to respond to them to yield positive results. The same applies to other professions such as teaching and even farming. Patience enables care givers to have a connection with the cared for and the former can develop feelings of compassion and empathy towards the latter. They will know why people act the way they do and what should be done to ‘ease the pain’.

I hardly consider myself a care giver, I ask my classmates and friends to constantly remind me of my mission to embrace patience and rebuke me if I deviate. I also create awareness by informing my classmates the importance of patience and how its use will make us better people. According to Noddings, there are two types of caring; virtuous and relational caring (2012). A virtuous care giver requires other people to emulate his/her virtuous acts while a relational care giver tends to cater to the needs of others and sacrifice tending to oneself for the sake of persons in need. Relational caring involves paying attention to fine details of other peoples’ lives and how they are or may be affected by impending calamities/crises. It also builds a foundation for human survival since the victim depends on the care givers’ compassion for survival or at least better living conditions. It can best be illustrated by the mother-child relationship; the infant needs its mother’s care for survival/healthy upbringing. Relational care givers show compassion in a more profound way than virtuous care givers. Everyone is therefore, a care giver. The difference arises on the amount of needs one is willing to give up for another person’s needs to be met. I relate to virtuous caring since it is hard to devote myself wholesomely in other people’s needs and consequentially suspend mind. Both the care giver and the cared-for have responsibilities to each other. The latter should act in a manner signifying he/she has benefitted from the care and the former should meet his/her needs. This is referred to as the caring relation (Noddings, 2012). Virtuous care givers like myself hardly experience a normal caring relation since the cared-for may or may not receive the care due to lack of noticing its existence. In such cases, the care giver can seek support from other caring individuals in the society. They mostly function to encourage the former and advise him/her on the decisions to make in attending to the needs of people. Teaching as a profession has many instances of an ‘abnormal’ caring relation among students. Take my case for example, I point out a notorious fellow student and urge him to change for the better using my case as a once reckless individual who has transformed and has an increasing GPA. The student fails to change hence fails to show that he has benefitted from my caring gesture. In my case I had a caring society amidst my friends since I managed to cultivate a caring culture in the classroom through creating awareness. My friends assist me to achieve my goal and to avoid giving up along the way.

Patience and Self-Confidence

The virtues that come with practicing patience enables care givers to achieve self-satisfaction from doing what is required of them by the society and their intuition as well. The mere fact that their intuition does not contrast the society’s expectation of them enables caregivers to develop self-confidence since they become willing to be accountable for their deeds due to the compassion and empathy behind them. The inverse is also true; when individuals are on the wrong, they have difficulties in facing the masses and resort to being defensive. Care givers on the other hand, are more likely to stand up for themselves when their exquisite levels of care are questioned. They do so with an intention to cultivate a caring culture so that they can promote compassion and empathy in the society and consequentially increase the general wellbeing of the latter.

Patience and Ethics

Patience-driven care can be ethical or natural (Noddings, 2012). Virtuous care is natural; it comes from within and is mostly driven by love for another individual such as a colleague, family member or friend. Here, one meets the needs of another due to his/her concern for the latter. Relational caring on the hand, is based on doing what is right hence is ethical. An individual’s conscience drives him to act responsibly towards others to prevent or suppress their suffering. Caring can also be both ethical and natural in cases where people are inclined to treat others with compassion since it is required of them by nature and society. In my case, I take care of my siblings since I love them dearly and that is also the society’s expectation of me. I do so because that’s what the nation expects from but also because I want them to have a normal childhood full of devotion and love.

Conclusion

This project has enabled me to know that I am a virtuous care giver: the fact that I consider my actions and intuition first then encourage others to follow suit does not make me a terrible person. My relationship with my classmates and family members shows that my caring is both ethical and natural. There is a great need for patience in the society since most undesirable conditions such as worsening illnesses and uncivilized behavior are prevalent due to lack of understanding on the part of potential care givers. Advocators of patience should create awareness on the importance of care and compassion in all sectors of the nation and be pacesetters of the same. Disciplinary actions should be taken against medical practitioners who neglect patients so that they can serve as an example to other health professionals and consequentially increase clients’ quality of life.

References

Bradshaw, A. (2011). Ethical and Compassionate Nursing. Nursing Times, 3-30.

Noddings, N. (2012). The language of care ethics. Knowledge Quest, 40(5), 52.