A Challenge Associated with Realising the Common Good
Introduction
The theological meaning of common good that has been given by the Catholic Roman Church is; Common good is the amount of social conditions that allow people to work in groups or as individuals with an aim of reaching their fulfilment fully and easily. For them to align their actions to the theological definition of common good they struggle a lot in order to balance their work while still trying to achieve both social and personal integrity. Nurses have an extra task in addition to the role of making sure they maintain and uphold ethical standards when handling the patients under their care. The road of realising aspirations of the common good in nursing is not always smooth and a few challenges occur locally and globally.
Nurses are at the forefront of offering healthcare in the society but society has refused to accept the idea of health care as a common good and this has become a challenge that has hindered the realising aspirations of the common good in the nursing profession both globally and locally (Valasquez et al., 2017). Claims such as healthcare offered to individuals is different from one person to another is one of the reasons that make makes society doubt that healthcare is a public good as compared to other public goods such as national defence. In healthcare members of society and healthcare providers are in exchange of private goods and their personal choice and judgment play an important role in ensuring the members of the society access these goods. There is some truth in this claim since nurses use the necessary healthcare resources to cure or care for these individuals (Cochran, Clarke, 1999). The point is healthcare offered by the nursing community is not only a common good but a means to common good.
Societies have failed to recognize that the nursing profession is in existence because of common good in conjunction with societal good. This failure has made them subject the existence of the nursing community to oblivion (Cochran, 2017). The nursing profession is defined by element such as concern, responsibility and care, these important and essential elements of this profession are at the verge of extinction and if the society is not careful these elements are likely to be replaced by machines that are managed by technicians due to the influence and grip of technology. The proposed scenario will only take place if the nursing community will fail to show and remind society of its importance and the only way it can do this is by ensuring they work towards the common good (Donley, Grandjean, Jairath, & McMullen, 2006).
It has been a challenge when it comes to deciding whether common good should be considered when it comes to analysing the role that the nursing community plays in our societies. Common good helps in shaping the guidelines of practicing nursing (Cochran, Hume, & Bouchard, 2016). Common good has played an important role and has influenced the advancements that are taking place in the offering of public health services such as widespread immunization and the constant care that is being showed to the elderly by the nursing community.
Evidence based practice has been a challenge that has faced the nursing community for a long time now not only on a local level but on a global level. Nursing profession requires a concrete base of proof in order to make sense of any nursing action or intervention that is taken by a nurse (Baalen & Jansen, 2015). In this context also nurses are required to show evidence of their knowledge and this knowledge is checked from examinations of the clinical results of the nurse in question or the evidence is backed up by previous research that had been carried out. When the evidence presented fails to be in accordance to the nursing action then the nursing profession is treated as one with uncertain value (Meux, 2013).
Conclusion
The road of realizing the common good in the nursing profession and community has not been an easy one. Nurses are at the forefront of offering healthcare but society has refused to embrace the fact that the healthcare offered by nurses is common good and the fact that nursing is an evidence-based practice has presented a challenge both locally and globally.
References
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Cochran A, Hume J, & Bouchard C. (2016). “Catholic Healthcare and the Common Good,” Health Progress, May-June 2016, pp. 34-40; Hamel R., “Of What Good Is the Common Good?” Health Progress, May-June 2016, pp. 45-47.
Cochran C. (2017). “The Common Good and Healthcare Policy,” Health Progress, May-June 2017, pp. 41-44, 47.
Cochran, Clarke E. (May-June 1999). The Common Good and Healthcare Policy, Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States
Donley, S. R., Grandjean, C., Jairath, N., & McMullen, P. (November-December 2006).Nursing and the Common Good
Meux E. P. (2013). “Concern for the Common Good in an N-Person Game,” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, vol. 28, no. 3, December 2013, pp. 414-418.
Velasquez M. et al. (2017). “The Common Good,” Markula Center for Applied Ethics, available at www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/commongood.html; “Common Good: Restoring Common Sense to American Law.”
