Nurses are important to the heath and development of persons in the society. These nurses are instrumental in helping to prevent diseases; the promotion good health; and helping patients to monitor, manage and deal with different types of illness. Registered nurses are important to the process of connecting with a group of persons who have shared goals, values, and attitudes. The most important goal of nurses within the discourse community is to make every effort to restore the patient’s help and to help to regulate the physical and emotional state of the patient. While nurses cannot help every person who suffers from every type of illness, these nurses form a large part of the support groups that work with patients and the families of these patients to help each party to cope with, restore, and lessen the suffering for the victims and their families.
The level of responsibility for nurse increases as the level of skill increases. Therefore, it is important that nurses are trained in the appropriate fields in order to better serve their discourse community. With the increase in skill and further integration into the discourse communities, nurses begin to learn more about the common values, goals, and language associated with the discourse community in nursing. As such, nurse gains a new understanding of the nursing discourse community so that they are better able to help to train other nurses who are new to the profession. The process of training new nurses in the field is important as the nursing discourse community will continue to exist and grow even after nurses retire from the field.
Discourse communities are important to every society. According to Gary Schmidt and William J. Vande Kopple, a discourse community refers to a “group of people who share ways to claim, organize, communicate, and evaluate meanings” (Schmidt & Vande Kopple 2). In addition, discourse communities are different because the members of the group have different perceptions on the reality of the specific community (Schmidt & Vande Kopple 2). In essence, discourse communities can be described as an audience for which a person writes or speaks with or speaks to. In other words, the discourse community is those that a person can relate to through simple socialization, writing, speech and graphics. Each person within the group works towards achieving similar goals and interest and use a common language to share these ideas.
The discourse communities are based all over the world and in order for persons to understand the roles of these communities persons must become aware that everyone falls into a discourse community at some point in life. But, persons become more effective in the society when they are a part of more than one discourse communities. Each community allows for experience and knowledge and in turn allows for better communication within the group. Sindi Mthembu and Fikile Mtshali use limited graphic presentation, but are clear in their views that “education begins with the curiosity of students (9) and is further enhanced by mutual learning as students are able to share joint perspectives in an effort to reach clearer of deeper understanding of the problems in the communities.
Nevertheless, persons working within the discourse communities will have different views on how to care for patients even though the ultimate goal is make the client better. One person may believe that strict medication is the only source of treating persons who are sick, but there are others who believe that treatment in some medical case require more than the prescribed medication and should include counseling. The goals of wanting the patient to get better are the same within the discourse community but the method may differ. Schmidt and Vande Kopple use a number of examples and cite a number of reputable sources as well to help to clarify the meaning of community discourse. The style of writing is important to understanding the role persons play in discourse communities as it allows persons to get a clearer understanding of the subject.
Schmidt and Vande Kopple further add that persons can move from one discourse group to another and do not change the systems of meaning as each person grows (3). The manner of communication can change as different writers of different discourse communities will “write past each other, never seeming to find common ground” (Schmidt and Vande Kopple 3). Furthermore, some writers use complex language structure to explain the same information. But, the truth is that within the discourse communities, there is little room for miscommunication as person works diligently to bring their differences to the forefront.
Similar to Mthembu and Mtshali, Hallet et al. presentation and the tone of the article is academic and could cause some misunderstanding on the parts of the members of the discourse communities. Nevertheless, the authors share the common understanding that in order for nurses to become effective their discourse communities, they must build a positive relationship with their patients (Hallett et al., 2). There is no discrepancy on the functions of the nurses’ goals in the discourse communities and these authors support Schmidt and Vande Kopple views that discourse communities function because of the open communication between the members of the community.
In concluding, nursing discourse communities are important to the society as the groups offer patients the chance to heal holistically. Nurses share the common goals of helping patients to get well and for families to be able to cope with the period of illness. Patients share the common goal of communication with their nurses and being open to different ways in which nurses can render their assistance. Researchers on the topic of the nursing discourse communities make different presentations on the subject. Some researchers may uses tables and charts while others may use simple and clear discussions. But despite the method of presentation, researchers and critics on the subject of nursing discourse communities share the common goal of sharing meaningful information that explains the function of the discourse communities and the way persons can develop within these communities.
References
Hallett, Christine E. Hallett, et al., Community nurses' perceptions of patient `compliance' in
wound care: a discourse analysis (1999), Journal of Advanced Nursing 32(1), 115±123,
Web. 25 Feb. 2016 PDF Files
Mthembu, Sindi Z. & Mtshali, Fikile G., Conceptualization of Knowledge Construction in
Community Service-learning Programmes in Nursing Education (2013), Curationis 36 (1), Art 69, pp. 1 – 10, Web, 25 Feb 2016 <http://dx.doi.org>
Schmidt, Gary & Vande Kopple, Discourse Communities: The Rhetoric of Disciplines (1993)
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993.
