Nursing Professionalism

Nursing is an occupation in which professionalism (or lack thereof) can have a significant effect on not only patients and their health, but the nurse’s relationships with colleagues, patients’ families and even their community. A nurse must exemplify professionalism, especially in an environment that creates increased risk for loss of life or further injury. There are many aspects that are involved with professionalism in nursing, and many expectations set up on the nurse.

There are nine essentials of professional nursing practice that will ensure the professional nurse will be able to practice in complex healthcare systems. The nine essentials are liberal education, basic organizational and systems leadership for quality care and patient safety, scholarship for evidence based practice, information management, health care policy, interprofessional communication and collaboration, clinical prevention, professionalism and baccalaureate generalist nursing practice. These aspects of the baccalaureate education are “essential” for creating a well-rounded nurse able to practice in a variety of settings and provide care for people from “all walks of life.”

A professional appearance is a main concern when being evaluated; a clean, firm, appropriate attire is required at all times. A nurse must comply with the facilities standards of uniform, with proper protocol. A clean uniform is a healthy uniform, while a nurse holds a prior engagement in the field of

Professionalism is a very important key in the nursing profession. It is what paints a good image for a business or, in this case, an organization, people will most likely choose the professional organization over the unprofessional, because with the nurses that are professional they have great quality in customer service. Examples being, nurses that are professional aren’t rude or disruptive, they handle business in a kindly manner, following directions and policies etc. Unprofessionalism in nursing practice continues to hinder the expansion of the field. There are many things that nurses do that are highly unprofessional at the workplace. A few major unprofessional mistakes nurses tend to do is, bullying, breaking HIPPA, and behavior. To me, these are the biggest mistakes that really pop out at me.

(2004) stated that, “motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under

In some of those hospitals nurses all wore the same color scrubs while in others they did not. What a huge difference for me and my family members in those facilities that did have color coded scrubs to be able to immediately know when someone walked into the room whether or not he or she was a nurse. And just in case you’re thinking that you can distinguish yourself in other ways, it simply isn’t so in most cases. Rarely do people introduce themselves in the hospital when entering a patient room (a bad and dangerous habit). Name badges are either covered by lab coats or sweaters, flipped around, or are unreadable from any. Additionally, we worked hard to earn our credential, and it is important to maintain our visibility. After all, we are

In a highly respected profession such as nursing, professionalism is an important element to staying employed and setting one’s self apart from the rest of the applicants when competing for a potential job. By definition professionalism are the qualities and traits that describe a professional. While knowledge is crucial in any profession, according to an article published by the University of Kansas (2012), “all medical professionals must strive to retain those humanistic qualities integrity, respect, and compassion that constitute the essence of professionalism.” Whether you work in a hospital or administration these three qualities encompass the core of nursing and exemplify what it means to be a professional.

1. In your own words, define professionalism and how it relates to you as a health care provider? The essay must be limited to 250 words.

How did average citizens view nurses in the past? How do average citizens view nurses now? The typical nurse in the past was viewed as a woman wearing a white hat, white shirt, and bottoms and a person who only cared and comforted someone, and did not have much work to do. People viewed nurses as, having poor working conditions, shift work and a limited level of autonomy. Nurses work was seen as caring for and helping patients, being considered inferior than doctors. What these people don’t realize is the number of educational

The American Nurses Association (ANA) established The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice (2010). The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice consists of Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance. The standards serve as guidelines to define the profession of nursing and define the scope of practice for professional nurses. All standards presented in the The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice (2010) are essential for the nursing professional to function, legally, ethically and professionally in the healthcare organization.

Integrity should be held high in the nursing leadership. A nurse DNP with executive career field s normally take leadership positions. As a leader, I will be directing, advising and instructing staff members what they should do. Both young and old nurses will be looking up to me. Nursing is a career that demands respect, patient, compassionate and trust. It is very necessary to maintain trust in all my actions. If I tell my subordinate to act in a certain manner, my actions should reflect the same message back else I will lose respect and they will not take me serious. When I break the code of trust and respect staff will do or say whatever they want. If that goes on, the unit cannot move forward and patients will suffer. Patients will not

The standards of professional performance describe behaviors expected in the professional nursing role. These expected behaviors are ethics, education, evidence-based practice and research, quality of practice, leadership, collaboration, professional practice evaluation, resource utilization, and environmental health. For the sake of this paper, an in-depth evaluation of three specific behaviors is needed. Quality of practice, leadership, and collaboration are the three behaviors that will be further defined and evaluated.

One of the first things a patient sees when a nurse walks into their room is the expression on the nurse’s face and what the nurse is wearing. Everyone thinks of different attire when speaking of nurses: some think of the all-white uniforms with caps that needed to be starched, some may think of a person in scrubs, and few may think of risqué Halloween costumes of nurses. Nursing, unlike many professions, cannot dress in business or business casual every day to show professionalism, instead many hospitals have mandatory dress codes including having nurses wearing scrubs instead. It puts

Professional behavior is defined as the way a person acts towards others in a professional setting. As a nurse this could be mean the way you respond or act towards patients, supervisors, and co-workers. The way nurse’s respond is important because it can affect the patient and others around them. Nurse’s are held to a higher standard when it comes to being trustworthy and professional. They are expected to hold values of Beneficence, nonmaleficence, and autonomy. Black mentioned the definition of beneficence is determining what is good or best for the patient. Autonomy is when the individual has the right to make their own decisions in health care. Black (2014) defined nonmaleficence as the duty to not put the patient in harm. To behave in a professional way can allow the nurse to create a therapeutic relationship with the patient. Allowing the patient to trust that the nurse’s response is in the best interest and respect of the patient (NCSBN). By having the best interest in the patient’s outcome, the nurse would abstain from attaining personal gain at the patient’s expense. The space between the patient’s vulnerability and the nurse’s power is where professional boundaries are met (NCSBN).

A professional nurse is one who puts the needs and importance of patient care above all others. While striving for professionalism, nurses need compassion, patience, empathy, strong moral and ethics, accountability and the commitment to always act in the best interest of their patients. Nurses are held accountable for providing quality, safe, and effective nursing care (Hood, 2014). A professional nurse has the responsibility to continually improve and implement nursing standards while maintaining integrity by involving themselves in various tasks. Regular involvement in reading professional literature and sharing of evidence- based research with other healthcare personal helps increase knowledge and skills. This nursing ability can be used to encourage the actions of others in the healthcare team resulting in improved patient care. Nurses should encourage each other to become involved in hospital committees, provide an environment to encourage the discussions of ethical dilemmas, promote professional growth of nurses to voice their concerns and share viewpoints to address issues. “A professional nurse should expect to commit to a life of continuous learning growth and development”. (Hood, 2014, pp. 29). Nurses choose this profession to help others. As professional nurses we must maintain our ethics, values, characteristics, and commitment to drive our profession forward (CCN, 2015). Nurses must be autonomous, accountable, and be able to delegate to unlicensed assistive personnel. Being autonomous as a nurse means having control over their practice (Hood, 2014). It allows a nurse to take risks while being held accountable for ones’ actions (Hood, 2014).