Professionalism in the Workplace of Nursing Essay

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.

Respect is vital to any relationship because it provides a base for fair and unbiased treatment of one another. Without respect for the worth of each individual and his expertise it would be difficult to act as a team. Just as critical to the function of a team is integrity. Integrity ensures that the nurse is acting honestly and holds herself to both moral and professional standards. Responsibility is essential in all nursing practice, but is particularly necessary when integrating care with other disciplines and professionals. As the functions of a healthcare team become more individually specific, the ability rely on each person to perform her part is crucial. Finally, compassion is the framework for all nursing action. While it is widely accepted that compassion for patients is part of nursing, compassion for fellow professionals is necessary too. In conjunction with respect, compassion allows the team to function by accepting each individual’s specific perspective and acknowledging the importance of their skills.

52). Within the field of nursing compassion is a rare term, replaced by connotations like empathy, sympathy and caring. Using various sources Shantz cites the views –hers- on the translation of compassion, exactly what compassion is in the field of nursing and the relations or non-relations between words that are implied to be synonymous to compassion. Shantz demonstrates the issues of how nursing is identified by a word that is scarce in the environment of nursing. In short, with the introduction, review of literature, identification of a definition for compassion, related connotations and their differences, antecedents, critical attributes, consequences and a model case over the movie

The professionalism of nursing is influenced on the knowledge that nurses inherit and the progression of their role over many years. The knowledge of a nurse is undefined because the knowledge of a nurse is constantly progressing, evolving in its profession (Akthar-Danesh , Baunman, Kolotylo, Lawler, Tompkins & Lee 2013), the role of a nurse cannot be displayed or portrayed by knowledge, that is constantly changing due to many factors(Nursing Times , 2005 ). To elaborate on the knowledge of a nurse you would be bias to think that the knowledge of the nurse doesn’t reflect on the professionalism of a Nurse, therefore they influence one another, during a career of a nurse. The professionalism of a nurse is represented through many factors; the

Nurses must display a knowledge of skills by portraying a functional ability to assess, treat, and prevent illness in the clinical setting. “The nurses are obliged to gain specialized knowledge, skills and training through the rigorous study of biological, physical and behavioral sciences and then use this knowledge to diagnose and treat patients suffering from different ailments. The patients treated must be under the supervision of skilled medical practitioners and the nurse must be equally directed by the expert medical practitioner. The prevention and management of illnesses, injury and ailments also forms some of the major tasks that have to be carried out by nurses. Politeness in expression, compassion for patients and proper uniform are also some of the main parts of professionalism in nursing.” (professonalism in nursing http://www.buzzle.com/articles/professionalism-in-nursing.html)

Compassion and respect are essential attitudes for nursing practice. Compassion has been described as the “wounding of the heart” or a

This essay discusses public expectations of nurses, nurse-patient relationships and how to set their guidelines through professional behavior and professional boundaries, what they mean to nurses, and the connection between professional behaviour and professional boundaries.

Nightingale said, “The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm”. The history of nursing initially begins with Florence Nightingale. Before her era nurses had a tarnished reputation (Glasper, 2017). They were poorly educated and incompetent people. Nurses such as Mrs. Bedford Fenwick wanted to change the image of nursing. They did this by leading a campaign for professionalism. Which led to the culminated Nurse Bill receiving is royal assent in December 1919 (Glasper, 2017). July 27, 1921 was the official opening of the nursing register, there are currently 688,927 nurses registered with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) (Glasper, 2017). The NMC code has four themes of professionalism, “Prioritizing

Compassion represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures

It is important to integrate the concept professionalism into your nursing career because it allows you to flourish personally as a nurse but more importantly allows the patient to receive the care they deserve. Throughout the course of one’s nursing career there will be many slips and falls. Mistakes will happen but we as nurses are able to reflect and learn from them in a

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as “the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well” (Merriam-Webster, 1828). I believe nurses are held to a higher standard of professionalism due to the importance and severity of their jobs.

Nonetheless, professionalism in health care systems goes hand and hand with patient-centered care. In order for nurses to perform their responsibilities with professionalism, they must provide health care services that are effective, beneficial, and acceptable by their individual patients; and that explains the importance of patient-centered care in the medical systems.

To be a person who is deemed professional you have to have a sense of leadership. Leadership in the healthcare field means you have to be willing to teach others. You help build and maintain a culture that facilitates professionalism. As a leader you do not participate in workplace pranks. Another important aspect of professionalism is honor and integrity. To have honor and integrity in the workplace you need to be forthcoming with information; and not hold important information for your own benefit. You can admit your own errors. You deal with confidential information discreetly and appropriately. One of the most important attributes regarding professionalism is respect. You have to respect institutional staff and all staff representatives. You have to respect patients rights and dignity and their privacy and confidentiality. A person who is professional has to have caring, compassionate and have communication. You treat the patient as an individual taking into account lifestyle, religious beliefs, and ethnicity. You communicate bad news with sincerity and compassion. You deal with sickness, death, and dying in a professional manner with the patient and the patient’s family members.

David Cameron (Uk Prime Minister) argued that nursing has been ‘over academicised’ and the new graduates may not mirror the vocationally driven needs of clinical work (Santry, 2010). Moreover, Crigger & Godfrey (2011) stipulates that professionalism is attached to moral qualities and resilience in practice have not been well linked or researched in nursing fiction. Similarly, Abbott (2010) argues that professional nurses fight among themselves via redefinition of each other’s job, making the profession seem unstructured features. Qualities like bravery, meekness, forgiveness, integrity, and empathy are developed and inherent but professional identity is shifting from these virtues (Crigger & Godfrey, 2011; McCammon & Brody, 2012). Furthermore,

Professionalism is a fundamental concept that is determined by learning the norms, attitudes, behaviors, skills, roles and values of the profession. Professional identity means the internalization of values and norms of the profession into the behavior and self concept of the individual (Creasia & Parker, 2007 ).Traditional recommendations to promote nursing into a complete profession predicated on developing a body of specialized knowledge and using scientific methods to enlarge theoretical basis; education in university settings and acquiring clinical competence; adherence to a code of ethics; self regulation and autonomy; in addition to lifetime commitment and service to the public (Keogh, 1997; Wynd, 2003; Alidina, 2013). From a sociological point of view, acquiring specialized knowledge and having control over the work environment are two essential characteristics of a profession (Freidson, 2001). Lack of autonomy was a major threat for nursing to achieve full professional status (Kelly, 1987; Smith, 2003; Creasia, & Parker, 2007). Determining the professional status of nursing in the modern society is by no means an easy task as different countries have different opinions on the matter (Keogh, 1997). According to Colyer (2004), health professionalism is a function of both culture and time and is influenced by the ideology that determines public policies and the delivery of health care services.