Altruism in nursing is the selfless act of showing compassion, care, and concern for others’ well-being, even at the cost of sacrificing your own comfort or convenience. It is an essential part of the nursing profession, signifying a willingness to go above and beyond to ensure a patient’s wellness. While altruism is not limited to nursing alone, this character trait is especially evident in the most successful nurses.
Selfless concern and willingness to help others, prioritizing patients’ needs above personal interests.
Importance:
- Enhances patient care and satisfaction
- Fosters therapeutic relationships
- Promotes teamwork and collaboration
- Increases job satisfaction and retention
- Embodies nursing’s core values
Characteristics:
- Empathy and compassion
- Selflessness and sacrifice
- Genuine interest in patients’ well-being
- Willingness to go beyond duties
- Respect for patients’ autonomy and dignity
The “altruism” theme was one of the main extracted themes in the recent study that was of two main categories: “Humanistic care” and “caring attitude.”
Humanistic care
In participants’ views, a self-efficient pediatric nurse tries to meet the child’s and family’s needs and to empathize and understand the suffering of children and their families with humanistic care. This theme comprised two subcategories of “maternal care,” “family-centered care.”
1.Maternal care
“A nurse that has maternal feelings toward children she cares for feels every child is her own, and compares them with her own children, and talks to them the way she talks to her own children and does what she should in nursing terms. I feel so sorry for sick children. Sometimes, I feel so sorry for some of them that I pray for them to get well. I am concerned about them and sympathize with them.”
Paediatric nurses should provide mother-like care, understand the child, understand suffering of mother whose child has fallen ill, to understand what the child is going through, be a mother to understand what the mother feels, be sympathetic and a good nurse, and care for children as her own.”
2.Family-centered care
“A nurse should empathize with the child and his family. During care, the child cannot defend himself and is victimized. The nurse should encourage parental cooperation in caring for the child and be able to calm the mother. For instance, when taking the intravenous (IV) line, most mothers are unhappy and frightened. Explanations should be given beforehand that nothing untoward will happen. We should train them and make them aware. Give them a peace of mind. When I explain, parents cooperate.”
“Self-efficient nurse understands that in pediatric ward his account of the family and children. Really see the family’s problems, for example, when taking IV line is never normal for us. However, the child families have the right to be discomfort and feel that his baby suffers. The self-efficient nurse understands the family’s sense of discomfort and protest. Maybe call it empathy.”
Caring attitude
A positive attitude for care played an important role in accepting the role of pediatric nurses and their self-efficacy in caring for children.
1.Loving child
“Nurses that love children and are interested in caring for children, I think, have more self-confidence. Because the tasks related to children are more special. It’s more stressful than other wards. The care given in pediatric wards is more special than that in other more general wards. Because the mother stands with her child and always worries and has much more expectations of nurses than other wards.”
2.Religious beliefs
“Unfortunately, in nursing, because of job dissatisfaction and low wages, many issues such as tiredness, heavy shifts, and dissatisfactions can affect function and attitude of nurses, and thus they do not feel very committed, which is very dangerous, especially in pediatric ward, it is a huge hazard. However, a self-efficient nurse is committed to her work, and it is highly important for her to do her job properly.”
Examples for Altruism in Nursing:
- Staying late to ensure patient comfort
- Listening actively to patients’ concerns
- Advocating for patients’ needs
- Providing emotional support to families
- Volunteering for difficult assignments
Measurement Tools:
- Altruism Scale for Nursing (ASN)
- Nurses’ Professional Values Scale (NPVS)
- Empathy Scale (ES)
Ultimately, altruism in nursing means prioritizing patients’ needs and putting them first. You will find nurses who act altruistically providing comfort to patients before and after punching the time clock. They offer emotional support to their patient’s families and advocate for patient rights, even at their own expense. I remember working in the ICU during the pandemic with nurses who truly displayed altruism.
Importance of Altruism
Altruism is essential in nursing for many reasons, including having a significant impact on patient care and outcomes. The top reasons why altruism in nursing is so important.
1.Promotes Patient Trust and Confidence and Improved Experiences
Altruism plays a crucial role in nursing as it helps to build trust and confidence from the patient’s perspective. When nurses exhibit selfless acts of care and compassion, it makes patients feel valued, understood, and secure. This trust, in turn, can greatly enhance their cooperation and willingness to follow treatment plans. By practicing altruism, nurses create a nurturing environment that promotes healing and well-being, making a positive impact on patients’ overall healthcare experience.
2.Improves Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes
Altruistic nurses consistently go above and beyond to ensure patients receive exceptional care. The nurses who skip a bathroom break to stay by a patient’s side, stay late after a shift, or work to improve the quality of their care have an impact on patients. These acts of altruism are associated with improved patient satisfaction as well as promoting quicker recovery times, fewer complications, and ultimately better outcomes for patients. Your commitment and compassion can make a significant impact on the overall quality of care provided, which also improves organizational outcomes and promotes the nursing profession in a positive light.
3.Enhances Job Satisfaction
Altruism in nursing can give you a sense of satisfaction and self-worth that spills over into your professional life and leads to enhanced job satisfaction. Although nurses work tirelessly, and their efforts can sometimes be overlooked by management and even by the patients themselves, making a significant difference in someone’s life can give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment. When you feel fulfillment and improved job satisfaction, you are more likely to remain motivated, which can help stave off the ever-present risk of nurse burnout.
4.Encourages a Positive Work Environment
When altruistic nurses work together, it creates a positive and supportive work environment. Nurses who prioritize patients’ needs over their own can inspire others to do the same, creating a culture of compassion and empathy. Altruism is contagious, and when demonstrated at the nurse’s station, it can create a ripple effect of kindness that extends beyond nurses to patients, families, and everyone else who experiences those behaviors. You can inspire your co-workers, family, friends, and even your patients to lead their lives in a way that promotes the well-being of others.
5.Upholds the Ethical Standards of Nursing
Altruism in nursing is important because it is a reflection of ethical behavior. As nurses, when we practice altruism, we are instrumental in promoting a strong, positive reputation for the profession. By prioritizing the needs of others, we make a real difference in the lives of those we care for. This creates a nurturing environment that promotes healing and well-being. With dedication and compassion, nurses truly embody the spirit of altruism, going above and beyond to provide the best possible care to everyone they serve.
Challenges of Practicing Altruism
The following is a list of some of the common challenges nurses face in practicing altruism.
1.Who has the time?
Nurses today have more responsibilities now than ever before. The nursing shortage was only exacerbated by the pandemic, and those of us who are still practicing are left to shoulder the additional burden. With limited hours in the day, it becomes challenging to find the time to pause, take a breath, and prioritize the patient’s experience. The demands of our time can easily lead to frustration, and this frustration can obstruct the ability to provide the best possible care.
2. Lack of appreciation
There may be times when a patient is not easy to deal with. They may be rude or demanding. It can be tough to stay kind and patient in these situations. As a nurse, you are committed to helping people through the healing process, no matter what. However, it is definitely a challenge when you try to help someone who seems to be going out of their way to make your shift miserable. Dealing with these situations and keeping the patient a priority is one of the challenges of altruism in nursing.
3. Emotional Burnout
Nursing burnout is a bear. It is what encouraged me to go to a part-time schedule in the ICU and go back to school to get my master’s degree. I find that naturally compassionate nurses struggle to provide optimal care when they are overworked and worn out even before their shift begins. They start to feel sad, become resentful of their jobs and management, and have an unwillingness to go to work, leading to a decreased level of empathy compared to what they usually exhibit. Consequently, caring for patients turns into a more demanding task. In this state, you may struggle to find the strength to perform extra acts of kindness that you genuinely wish to offer.
4.Limited resources and staffing
High staffing ratios, short-staffed units, and no-call no-shows are phrases that make us shudder, especially at the start of a shift. Yet, it happens all the time. I think we just become immune to it and expect it after a while. You might feel overwhelmed, as if there’s only time for back-to-back med passes, especially if you are the only nurse tasked with an entire medical-surgical floor. In these challenging and often recurring situations, it is hard to go above and beyond for patients. You may feel as though you are trying to stay afloat with a heavy weight dragging you under, which makes showing altruism in nursing challenging.
5. The juggling act
It is no secret that nurses are experts in multitasking. However, it becomes a real challenge to provide optimal care when we are handling multiple tasks at once. In busy healthcare settings, nurses often have to prioritize and make quick decisions about which patient needs immediate attention. If you have multiple patients with diverse needs, you may feel like you are in a juggling act at the circus. Unfortunately, being pulled in so many directions makes showing altruism a bit challenging.
REFERENCES
- U.S. healthcare spending is the highest among developed countries. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2019). https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2019/us-health-care-spending-highest-among-developed-countries
- Chris Meyer, what is Altruism in Nursing? retrieved from https://www.nursingprocess.org/altruism-in-nursing.html
- Alavi, Azam; Zargham-Boroujeni, Ali1; Yousefy, Alireza2; Bahrami, Masoud1,. Altruism, the values dimension of caring self-efficacy concept in Iranian pediatric nurses. Journal of Education and Health Promotion 6(1):p 8, | DOI: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_142_14
- Chen Y, Xie C, Zheng P, Zeng Y. Altruism in nursing from 2012 to 2022: A scoping review. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Dec 9;13:1046991. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1046991. PMID: 36569609; PMCID: PMC9780546.
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