Nurse's Aide Theory

Theories Paper I work at St. Charles Senior Living Center in the infirmary as a nurse’s aide. This paper will examine how the role of a nurse’s aide can be analyzed based on the theories of functionalism, the conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.
Overall functionalism can be analyzed for the job of a nurse’s aide. Functionalism is a theory that I compare to a team who has to keep a ball bouncing, the ball symbolizing the job of keeping the residents happy and healthy. Each role player has to take their turn in bouncing the “ball” so that it can keep bouncing. The roles needed to make St. Charles Senior Living Center function would be the head nurse, the nurses on duty, the nurse’s aides, the cleaning crew, the kitchen crew, and
the patients. At St. Charles, everyone is expected to give reports to the head nurse so that she can keep everyone on the same page. When you have six different nurses and twenty-five different nurses’ aides, it’s important to relay messages and keeping track of what has been done each day. The nurses and nurse’s aides take care of the patients day to day, they make sure they are comfortable and do things such as feed the patients unable to feed themselves. However, this is where the kitchen crew needs to ‘bounce the ball,’ the aides need to have food to feed the residents, the kitchen crew cooks the food and delivers it to the infirmary side of St. Charles for each of the meals. The nurse’s aides often times are the ones feeding the residents, and sometimes this can be messy; this is where the cleaning crew has a chance to ‘bounce the ball.’ They clean up after our messes and just in general make St. Charles a clean place to be.
A nurse’s aide has both manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are the functions that are listed in the job description, they are what are expected of each employee playing a specific role, and this is the bread that you need. Manifest functions of a nurse’s aide are to help residents to the restroom, assisting residents with eating, emptying bedpans and urinals as needed, answering call lights, bathing and dressing patients, and taking patients on walks to keep them active. The manifest functions help a nurse’s aide know what is expected of them when they are on duty; it gives everyone a baseline so they know what to do when they are at work. Latent functions are functions that are not technically in your job description, but you do them anyway to make the workplace a better environment. Latent functions is the butter, they make the bread easier to eat, just like they make the workplace run easier. Latent functions of a nurse’s aide are to spend time talking with residents, and washing dishes after each meal. Spending more time on patients is good with building the relationship between you and the patient, but at the same time can slow you down. Washing dishes after meals is something that is not in the job description, but without the dishes being cleaned, we cannot prepare that night’s snack or set the table for the next day.
You can also see the conflict theory in the job of a nurse’s aide. The conflict theory is simple and what it appears to be; it is the differences workers with different job titles have compared to each other, even if they work for the same company. The overall conflict between nurse’s aides and nurses is that nurses have a set schedule from week to week, where nurse’s aides are finding out their schedule week by week, and that the nurses get paid better than the nurse’s aides do. This is a conflict because some of the ladies do not receive the hours they need when working as a nurse’s aide to earn enough money to pay the bills from week to week, where the nurses have a set schedule and get plenty of hours, along with plenty of pay. There are aides that are part –time and aides that are full-time. The big difference is that full-time workers get more benefits such as health insurance.
In the job of a nurse’s aide you can also see competing interests being demonstrated. Competing interest is what it seems to be, it is two people who see a situation from two opposite angles, each have good backings for their arguments, but almost always, the “bigger dog” gets the say so in the final decision. These decisions may make the job more difficult for a certain person to do his/her job, but ultimately, is probably better for the overall functionalism of the group. An example of a conflict theory between the nurse’s aide and the financial advisor could be that the nurse’s aides would like more aides on duty to make the shifts less hectic. However, the financial advisor doesn’t see what goes on during these shifts, so he does not see the point of hiring more nurse’s aides considering that would mean paying for additional aides to be staffed.
Symbolic interactionism is apparent and crucial in the job of a nurse’s aide. Symbolic interactionism what how people with certain job titles act while on the job, what actions they perform, and most importantly, the words that roll off of their tongues. At St. Charles, we meet this by doing the things we need to that enables us to care for the residents, and we also use medical terminology when explaining a certain resident’s condition to each other. Social construction is the assumptions that society makes about a certain job, not always based on the facts, but on what they hear, one that I hear often about a nurse’s aide is that we are ‘glorified ass wipers,’ although the job is way more than that. Social construction of a nurse’s aide may also include that we take care of patients. We are expected to dress the part, be kind, be caring, be very patient with the residents, and know the terminology. The language used between nurse’s aides and their co-workers is medical terminology; one must be able to understand the terms used to be successful during their job. For example, if in the charts it says that a resident is on CBR c BRP, to a regular person that looks like a mess, but to us, that is saying that the resident is on complete bed rest with bathroom privileges. If an employee didn’t know this terminology, she would not be able to perform her job of keeping the patients safe.
Presenting yourself in a professional manner is a big part of being a nurse’s aide, you need to not only dress the part, but you need to act the part.
The dramaturgical theory is the effect of how a scene a person is put in makes them act a certain way, use certain props, or speak with certain terminology. Props needed to perform as a nurse’s aide are things such as scrubs, exam gloves, pens, stethoscopes, tongue depressors, and having your hair up and back. These items help prove to the public that you are doing your job. The scrubs and exam gloves provide a professional barrier between you and the patient’s bodily fluid; where the pens, stethoscopes, and tongue depressors are items needed to do simple procedures and record your findings; having your hair up is a professional action needed so that while you’re moving around and doing your job, you’re
not
The role of a nurse’s aide can be analyzed based on the theories of functionalism, the conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.
We see overall functionalism taking place in all the different positions needed to be filled in order for the ball to keep bouncing. Manifest and Latent functions, or the buttered bread, are the things nurse’s aides do that make everything run smoothly. We see the conflict theory surfacing between the different titles behind the employee’s name. Competing interests is also relevant to bring up when talking about the staff at St. Charles, there are plenty of complaints made by the staff, but in reality, everything runs smoothly. One may also see symbolic interactionism, through the actions we perform or the way we talk, that may fit the expectation the public has for nurse’s aides. Nurse’s aides are required to wear scrubs while on the job, and to use certain props, these things are crucial to our job, and can fit under the dramaturgical
theory.