Nader - it's not a question of which role is more important - especially related to your list of roles. It's more a question of 'which role is needed (prioritised) and when - depending on context. What is important when dealing with an acutely ill client is not so important when dealing with a client in a rehabilitation phase. Similarly, different roles are needed when dealing with clients in acute settings the in community-based settings and vice versa. We can extend this notion in stating that roles change depending on where the client is with regard to lifespan and where they are with regard to setting i.e. a school nurse dealing with children in the school setting, an aged care nurse dealing with older people in a residential setting, a palliative nurse dealing with clients in a hospice etc.

Dean,

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. I think human is a multidimensional creature and needs to all of professional role of a nurse. I am agree with your idea.

Let's discuss about the situations that a person needs each of them more.

Nurses are the heart of healthcare simply because helping people is a noble privilege providing vital services to fellow human beings. I personally think that her most important role is her adroit use of interpersonal communication skills for creating and maintaining rapport with the patients. The main reason is that friendly rapport with patients can be as crucial as major surgical operations by a doctor. Notably, through friendly relationships, nurses are able to dispense comfort, compassion, and caring for those desperate people who are in the midst of painful experiences .

All these roles are important. Which role one plays predominantly would depend on the situation. For an extremely distraught patient, listening to the patient and providing some sort of (mental health type) counseling is more helpful than explaining the gory details of the medical procedures that may be involve in the treatment. Thus a nurse should be most flexible in their roles as they are often more of a focal point to the patient than the doctor himself/herself.

Dear Reza,

Rapport is very important. If we cannot distinguish our patients' problems by a real communication, our works for her/ him will be useless.

Dear Srini,

Flexibility is very important, because a nurse should decide and react in different times or places based on new situation!

Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts

- Una and the Lion‎ - Página 6, de Florence Nightingale - Publicado por Riverside Press, 1871 - 22 páginas

The most important role of a nurse is certainly patient care, working according to the need and completeness of the human being. Each role that the nurse plays is part of a set of actions with the main objective of caring for the human being.

Thus, all nurses' activities are equally important and complement each other in a way that addresses the needs of the patient and characterizes the work of the profession.

It is true that the nurse often faces the various activities to be performed and needs to list the priorities of the moment, always having as main base the maintenance of life.

The most important role of a nurse may be improvement patient's quality of life in all of his/ her health dimensions.

To satisfied patient and improve the patient care quality a nurse have to give importance all kind of roles but more importantly a nurse must a smile face for all patient. In my experience I think being alert and patience in all situations is the most important role for a nurse. Because if you being alert and patience in all conditions or situation you will able prevent any silly mistake and manage any critical and unusual situation.

Nursing is art and science and a nurse should use verbal and non verbal communication as the base of her/ his practice.

There’s no professional role of a nurse that is more important than the other - for all professional roles of a nurse are given with full effort the welfare of the patients under their care. Our patients are the reason of our being and the center of our care, our advocacies and efforts in health are all anchored for patients’s welfare and for the good of the many.

Nurses are angel so what the nurse can do for clients most of the family member will reject so, in my point of view every single point in nursing care and professional are crusial.

In my opinion, importance of a dimension of nursing changes based on the client's needs, time and place of care.

It is impossible to chose one without putting it into context. If I were in a forced-choice situation, i would definitely choose the role of patient advocate as being most important because it addresses all aspects of insuring a patient and family receive the care they should be receiving by all members of the health care team - the right care from the right professional and in a timely manner, and when this does NOT happen, the role is to blow the whistle - the advocate.

As a nurse,most important role is to identify the exact health need of the patient and either provide or create environment that fulfils the holistic health of the patient preserving quality of life as much as possible.They are like mothers turned professionals....

Exactly said by Taniya. detecting and identifying the actual need of the patient, very important to detect every new sympom. objectives or subjectives. both give the new photograph of the patient state inorder to make adquete decisions form patient comfort for an eficient tranquility in both parties.

Sharon Andersen, @Al

I hate computers, I inevitably, hit the wrong key by accident. I agree with several of the comments, but my interpretation leans toward patient teaching as being the central issue that combines all of a nurse's roles. Education requires advocacy, addressing the needs of the person and following through on them as in any good nursing care plan. A good educator tailors the information to the patient, respecting the patient's individuality and special educational needs. Sharon Andersen Emilio Andales Antang Jr Jane Muendo and Taniya Thapa all had inspiring comments. I am going back to school to complete my nursing diploma bridge to master's in nursing. It has been a very illuminating experience. I find that there are still things that I feel nursing has to address and aspects that I love and continue to love. Teaching has always been my favorite part of nursing. I hope to honor the wonderful teachers in my nursing past from instructors and mentors to patients and family members. Nursing will always be more art than science for me because the magic of nursing is touching a patient's core and helping the patient heal from within.

brigid

Nice input brigid. To educate a patient we need to know his/her problems, detect them by active listening the arguements because sometimes is even hard for the patient to express clearly or in a sincere manner what he/she lacks for a better attention.

The role of detecting will lead to a planned strategy of health education to the needs of the patient. Training a patient how to handle health symptoms is our role thus involving self interest for thier effective health process.

Our knowledge is to invite the patient to be active in his/her healthcare process. This makes work easier for the nurse and self confidence to the patient, both for patient comfort. Advocacy for patient self confidence is empowering thier capacity and demonstrates nursing leadership.

Dear Jane,

If a nurse be successful in communication with his/ her client, many nursing procedures will be correct and this is "patient Safety".

It’s hard to select just one area. Nurses do so much. I think that the top 3 would be care planning, education and collaboration. Of those 3 I would have to select care planning. Using the nursing process as a guide, the first step in planning is to assess. This provides the healthcare team with information about what the patient needs. Once the assessment is completed, the nurse can move onto the next phase of the nursing process, diagnose, which is actually identifying problems and needs. This helps the nurse determine which therapies to obtain orders for, how much and what type of education the patient and family need, what equipment will bennifit the patient and how to proceed in care giving. By assessing, the nurse is able to provide the all impoortant baseline of the patients condition. The next phase is planning. The nurse sets up a plan for other nurses and disaplines to provide the needed care. It is vital at this stage for the nurse to communicate the care plan so that it is correctly implemented.

Now, my opinion is based on the skills, needs and value of the bedside, home care or clinical nurse. Those nurses who provide direct patient care. Who are the back bone of nursing. Direct patient care is the most important role of the nurse. Proper, accurate, appropriate and safe patient care can not be provided without patient care planning

A human has many needs that should be met and all of professional roles of nurses are needed for this aim.

I think that all the different roles which a nurse takes upon have its different challenges but then again I feel the role of a clinical nurse is the most difficult since it requires a lot of experiential skills as well as intuition to deal with several situations. It's not an easy task and there are shortage and workload which is prevalent almost all over the world. So, I believe being in a clinical sector is juggling with your professional ethics as well as struggling with some personal space.

It's a question that is too broad and needs to be narrowed down. Are you asking which function? Which role as a job type? Which role in the aspects of nursing responsibilities? As a job type, I would say the Clinical Nurse Specialist is most important. As a role/function, I would definitely say advocacy is most important. As a function, I would say competence and compassion

Thank you Sharon. Role in the aspects of nursing responsibilities is my mean.

All of professional role of a nurse are important. A patient has multiple needs during hospitalization that should be met.