The Art And Science Of Professional Nursing Practice

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.”

We often hear that nursing is an art and a science, and I firmly believe that. The way a nurse blends those aspects of care defines the nurse. As nurses, our roles in our patients’ lives vary depending on their needs. We are teachers as well as technical experts, and our ultimate goal is to ensure our patients and families are ready to take over when the

The role of the author as a professional nurse, among many will entail: serving, empathizing, advocating, listening, educating and caring for others. Her nursing philosophy is about caring and building trust-worthy relationships with clients. The base for a holistic care and overall well-being of a client is attributed to the relationship and care a nurse builds and provides for their client. This partnership during the caring process is what leads to achieving the goals of the client. The author’s philosophy is built on Watson’s

Professional nursing practice has been developing for several centuries. Nursing as a profession can be traced back to the early Christian era. Since then the perception of nursing practice has changed significantly. “Nursing is caring, commitment, and dedication to meeting the functional health needs of all people” (Craven &

Philosophy is a set of ideas, values, and beliefs behind what a person does (Merriam- Webster Dictionary, 2015). All nurses have beliefs about what nursing is and is not. It is important to stay true to one’s personal, moral, and ethical values at all times. Nurses are morally and ethically responsible for their patients, decisions, and actions (Lindh, Barbosa, Berg, & Severinsson, 2010). Every nurse brings something different to healthcare because they have different philosophies and/or believe in different nursing theories that guide their practice.

In a world where nursing demands are drastically evolving, one of the most important professional competencies for master’s nurses to have is the ability to critically think and help provide services in a compassionate and caring manner. Many changes have occurred in the nursing profession from the quality of patient needs to the growing care centered around technology. However, one thing has stayed the same, and that is the art of caring and compassion in nursing. Critical thinking and change go hand in hand when it comes to the nursing profession. Since so many changes in healthcare have progressed, nurses must take critical thinking to a higher level to provide care to a growing number of patients with many comorbidities and without access to healthcare.

Nursing is a calling for you to be compassionate, caring, culturally sensitive, and non-judgmental to care for your patients physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Synthesizing science and art in nursing is intertwining knowledge, observation, experience, and evidence-based research to meet an individual’s specific needs. As nurses we will interact with patients who have different conditions and critical thinking will be a must which is both art and science. Searching for evidence-based practices to help your patient does not mean anything if your patient does not trust your instincts. It is your actions and words that are your art but your science is being able to back it up to obtain patient outcomes and goals that you are seeking.

From our text pg 46 "each state has a practice act that set forth licensing requirements for health professionals."

Serving as the groundwork for the Professional Practice Model, Swanson’s Middle Range Theory of Caring, a five-caring process includes, knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintaining belief, all which nurses do in their daily practice (Andershed & Olsson, 2009, p.598). The Professional Practice Model stands by the promise of providing superior care to patients and family through a caring, healing, and protective environment (LMHC, 2017). The nurses at Lehay Medical Center ensure that each patient receives the most professional and innovative care, through continuing education and nursing practice.

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.

Thank you for sharing your points of view. I think one of the hallmarks of professional nursing practice environments that resonate with me the most is the incentive programs that are suggested to provide to nurses for enhancing their job satisfactions and the desire of job advancements. According to Miller, Bradley, Jones, McCausland, Potempa, Rendon and Stanley (n.d), they suggested to recognize nurses' contributions of their knowledge and quality care to patients by giving compensation and reward to the outperformed nurses, setting up performance improvement evaluation programs, credentialing professional and educational roles, advancing nursing role, providing financial rewards for advancement and education, and promoting nurses to leadership

I do not believe whether he/she wears scrubs or a uniform really matters to the public image of nurses. I believe that nursing professionalism and presentation is the package not how one is dressed. Good patient care can be provided by a nurse wearing a trash bag in lieu of all white and a cap. I do believe that hospitals, LTC or any other health care establishment should implement dress codes and colors for all staff. For example; where I work all nurses either RN’s or LPN’s must wear all black or all white; no exceptions. CNA’s wear teal, MLT wear blue, RT wear navy blue and environmental services wear polo shirts with tan pants. With that being said, at times it does not matter to the patient or patient’s family because they will ask

Nurses play an integral part in assuring safe, quality patient care. “The responsibilities of the registered nurse (RN) have increased over the years” (Masters, 2017, p. 216). Patient care has become more difficult with the aging population leading to more complex cases secondary to multiple comorbidities along with shortened hospital stays. Nurses must be critical thinkers. They must be able to “think in a systematic and logical manner, solve problems, make decisions, and establish priorities in the clinical setting (Masters, 2017, pp. 216-217).

Clinical reasoning is an essential element of competent nursing practice. It is a process that involves both understanding and reflective thinking and is dependent on the critical thinking ability of nurses. Those with effective clinical reasoning skills can enhance patient outcomes. On the contrary, those with poor clinical reasoning skills will compromise patient safety as they will often fail to detect impending patient deterioration (Levett-Jones, et. al., 2010). Clinical reasoning is a systematic and logical method wherein nurses gather cues, analyze information, comprehend a patient’s condition, make plans and implement interventions, evaluate results, and apply reflective practice (Delany and Golding 2014). Clinical reasoning, being continuous, does not happen in a linear manner but remains to be cyclical (Marcum, 2012). Errors in clinical reasoning continue to account for majority of patient mortality and morbidity despite the sophisticated technology and evidence-based practices. Thus,