BSN Nurses Role in Psychological Assistance

Book Aspects to Help Three Main Characters

BSN nurses play a range of roles in administering healthcare. Thus, they would contribute significantly to help some of the characters of the book. After a lengthy perusal of the book, it is apparent that Micah and Daniela come from troubled backgrounds. Growing within such circumstances does not contribute to a healthy development or living. As demonstrated in case of Micah, his background influences the way he views people. The paper reviews the book, Even Me as it relates to nursing.

Similarly, Daniela occurred in such situation, since neither she can trust people nor she is prepared to enter the institution of marriage (Saint-Vilus, 2014). The two characters can benefit from psychological or mental assistance. The assistance should be focused on helping Micah and Daniela to overcome their fears. Thus, assisting the characters to overcome the psychological trauma would be important. Micah needs counseling or educational help to learn to accept his state. The same help would benefit Daniela to overcome societal biases that women can become successful preachers. Overcoming past rejection and future insecurities are major concerns that BSN nurses should help the characters overcome.

Other characters, such as Claudia, also need psychological help so that she could overcome her superiority attitude which she demonstrates while engaging Micah. Claudia is self-centered and keen on taking advantage of Micah to attain her selfish aspirations. Since BSNs have knowledge on community health, they are well-positioned to address the issues raised above.

Bachelors Degree Registered Nurse and Associates Degree Registered Nurse

The Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN) gives students the knowledge and skills required to be competent, as well as accountable nurses in various settings (Egenes, 2009). The nursing program covers patient care simulation, classroom theory, clinical experience, lab skills, among others. It is noted that BSN is more encompassing when compared to the ADN, since the former can handle tasks done by the latter (Egenes, 2009). For instance, while working as nurse educators, BSNs prepare the coming generation of nurses. Similarly, in training communities on health issues, BSNs enhance public awareness about health matters.

Unlike associate-degree or diploma nursing programs, baccalaureate degree nurses (BSN) are prepared to practice within all health-related settings (Egenes, 2009). They include mental health, critical care, public health and outpatient care. Therefore, a BSN nurse has deeper credentials regarding the delivery of care within outpatient centers, private homes, in addition to neighborhood clinics. It is noted that in the latter category of set-ups, the demand for healthcare is increasing owing to the shift from hospital to basic and preventive services across communities.

Assistance to Three Characters

Daniela and Micah are the book’s main characters. However, for the purposes of the current analysis, Claudia is another notable character. It is noted that Daniela came from an abusive family background. Daniela’s father chose to drink due to the economic frustrations, an aspect that eventually contributed to the death of his wife (Saint-Vilus, 2014). The case of Daniela’s family portrays how economic pressures affect life as her father is pressured to cater for the family such that he loses his temper and becomes violent. When an individual faces frustrations, some form of control is necessary. In case of Daniela’s father, it seems that his wife became the receiving object. The father also vents his frustrations at Daniela by asking her to stop wasting time on unnecessary education. He advises her to do practical courses, such as medicine and law. The circumstances that influenced Daniela have made her distrust people and, consequently, she stopped valuing the marriage institution. Besides, aspiring to become a pastor complicates Daniela’s life given that the society only approves of men pastors. As already pointed Daniela has faced resentment. She was fearful and unsure about the future. The father manipulated her emotional/mental instability as he convinced her to enter the nursing profession, owing to its perceived practicality.

The case of Micah demonstrates how dreams can be shattered when a society is not perfectly informed about health matters. As a young boy, Micah was of good health as he ran errands to the delight of his parents. However, things turned for the worst when he lost his eyesight. Micah lost his sight as a result of a retinal disease at a young age. His problems began at the point as he failed to understand why God had let it happen.

Micah’s problem was exacerbated by his parents’ lack of enough support. The case became worse as Micah heard the parents’ plans to prepare Mark to assume the leadership of the coveted Lambert business (Saint-Vilus, 2014). After following the conversation between Anne Lee and Morris (parents), Micah could no longer take further dejection, since he was the rightful heir to the business. Hence, he chose to leave the place forever. From the frustration, Micah managed to move forward and found his own entrepreneurial venture. However, despite enjoying incredible success, he did not manage to gain enough confidence.

Claudia, the lawyer who assists Micah about legal issues, develops interest on the man (Saint-Vilus, 2014). However, it emerges that Claudia believes she is doing Micah a favor by igniting interest in her. The attitude demonstrates that Claudia is internally persuaded to believe that a blind person does not have the attributes to be a partner. It is confirmed when she states to Micah, “I am gone… Let’s see what you can do without me”.

Given the above scenario, psychiatric or psychological assistance is necessary. It is arguable that many years spent in abusive environments have affected the psychological and mental processes of the two main characters (Micah and Daniela). Viewed differently, Daniela and Micah were negatively influenced by their backgrounds. Hence, the two are patients who need help from qualified public health nurses, such as those with BSN qualifications. Similarly, the case of Claudia demands the attention of a BSN nurse because she has a mental problem occasioned by her background. As demonstrated, she believes she can always make things occur the way she prefers as exhibited in her attempts to push Micah into a relationship.

Ethical Dilemmas

Within every professional field, ethics is required to guide the conduct. In practice, ethics border on morality, which is based on doing what is right or wrong. Given that ethical dispositions vary, nurses find themselves in a dilemma regarding how to act within given circumstances. It is noted that nurses work within multicultural settings. In such environments diversity in terms of values, traditions and ways of life presents a major concern for nurses (Bandman & Bandman, 2002). Regarding the book, the culture influences how people view people with disabilities and gender roles. However, as a nurse such variations should not deter the extension of appropriate knowledge to help victims. It is noted that Micah and Daniela are victims of culture. Hence, a nursing professional would be in a dilemma to help them because teaching them on what is right would amount to undermining the community’s culture. In order to overcome the dilemma, sticking to ethical guidelines bordering on service to people irrespective of variations would be critical.

Another dilemma borders on using empirical knowledge or personal belief. Such dilemma occurs when research-based nursing knowledge contradicts culture or religion (Bandman & Bandman, 2002). In current case, counseling Daniela might be counterproductive given that she is deeply involved in the Christian religion, hence she may think that her tribulations are based on the will of God. Besides, the principle of autonomy requires that elderly persons decide on receiving treatment. In such scenario, the next course of action for the nurse is intriguing. To overcome the dilemma, the nurse needs to educate the patient before guiding her through the counseling process.

BSNs’ Roles

One of the useful approaches to understanding the role of BSN is to interrogate the duties played by RNs. RNs focus on working within a hospital set-up for the larger part of their careers (Lundy, 2014). RNs handle tasks, such as recording patients’ symptoms, operating medical equipment, educating patients about diseases and working as part of medical teams. Working in such environments allows the nurse to gain experience on life-or-death circumstances, which is valuable within the nursing profession. However, training to earn a BSN degree allows an individual to work beyond a hospital environment. More often, BSNs work as educators of nurses or communities about major health issues. Thus, BSNs work as public health nurses.

Globally, the baccalaureate nursing degree curriculum has expanded to include clinical, scientific and decision-making, patient education, preparations in community health, development of humanistic skills, nursing leadership and management (Lundy, 2014). The enhancement of the above skills is highly essential given that nowadays nurses need to take swift and sometimes life-threatening decisions besides being required to develop a comprehensive plan about nursing care. In addition, nurses need to understand patients’ symptoms or danger signs, master emerging technology, supervise and support lower-rank nursing personnel, extend patients guidance and education on health and appropriate lifestyles.

To increase the knowledge about the role of baccalaureate degree nurses, it is observed that such professionals are being tasked with differentiated roles compared to other RNs (Lundy, 2014). In such developments, besides BSN nurses offering more complex care and patient education, they also design and guide comprehensive nursing care plans that extend through the length a patient stays at a health facility. In the endeavor, the BSNs supervise physicians, nurse aides, unlicensed personnel, other hospital personnel and family members. On the contrary, associate degree nurses carry out less complex roles within a