Becoming A Professional Nurse For Today 's Complex Society

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.

An underlining principle that forms all nursing practice is respect for the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals. (Jimenez-Lopez, Roales-Nieto, Seco, Preciado, 2016) Nurses are to always treat all patients with dignity. For example, closing doors before you start providing patient care. It’s also essential as a nurse to respect patients regardless of their background, race, culture, value system, or spiritual belief. (Jimenez-Lopez, et al., 2016)

This assignment will explore and discuss the concept of person centred care in professional nursing practice. Person centred care is defined by Walton(2014) as offering care that is responsive to the patients’ preferences, needs and values and being respectful, in which patient values guide all clinical decisions. The personal relationships formed with the nurses, responsible for patients care will be extremely important. Nurses are well positioned to establishing partnerships with individuals and loved ones and they are central to the quality of care that is experienced. (Walton 2014). Professionalism in nurses describes the skills, behaviours and values common to those practicing medicine. The concepts include the maintenance of proficiency, for a unique body of knowledge and skill-set, cohesion to ethical code of conduct, accountability, personal integrity, a commitment to self-regulation, altruism and the use of discretionary judgement. (Young 2010)

As a Registered Nurse is a crucial component to ensure that there is effective communication between the nurse and patient. As well as being respectful to the person’s dignity, culture, values, beliefs and rights. This is because everyone is different, and due to this it is important that I am being cautious to each person’s individual needs.

Following the appropriate ethics is of extreme importance in the nursing profession. “Ethics are of universal concern and crucial in all professional healthcare” (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420). The leading goal in nursing is to achieve patient-centered care. According to Arnold and Boggs (2016), “Patient centered care focuses on fully partnering with the client to provide care that incorporates his or her values and preferences to give safe, caring, compassionate and effective care” (p.25). In order to provide a well-grounded, caring environment, nurses need to be able to balance their personal differences with the ethical care standards they are obligated to provide patients (Gustafsson & Stenberg, 2017). Nurses spend the most time with patients; therefore, they eventually will develop a “sense of rightness” (Gustfasson & Stenberg, 2017, p.420).

In conclusion, I feel that the philosophy of nursing is a combination of core values, and beliefs that teaches us to treat each human being with the respect, compassion, dignity, and uniqueness, regardless of disease, social or economic status, or race that they deserve. My focus with each patient will be to allow them to have the right to be involved in the decision making of their care as well as allowing their family members to be involved in the decision making. I will maintain my beliefs and values by treating every patient, or coworker with respect that they deserve. I believe that each person has a calling in life and it takes a special person to become a nurse.

The guiding principles of Catholic Social Teaching have the overarching, dominating theme of human dignity (Condit, 2016, p. 371). The focus is, that human beings were formed in God’s image and in return, humanities purpose is to follow in God’s footsteps and portray the same love and grace (Coleman, 2008) (Condit, 2016, p. 371). Consequently, this affects how human beings interact with each other, requiring commitment, to look after, encourage, maintain and promote each other (Coleman, 2008) (Herbert, 2016, p. 7). One way to apply, this Catholic Social Teaching of human dignity, is to understand the nurse’s relationship with the patient. Nurses need to approach the patient with respect and maintain the person’s privacy, acknowledging that they are a fellow human being, with their own personal characteristics and beliefs (Condit, 2016, p. 371) (Walsh & Kowanko, 2002, p. 143-144, 149).

Professional values guide the decisions and actions we make in our careers. As nurses we are responsible for caring for patients during birth, death, illness and healing. If we are not aware of the decisions and actions to take it would be impossible to provide our patients with exceptional care. The values that are the foundation of the nursing profession are altruism, autonomy, human dignity, and social justice. In this paper I will define each value and describe their impact on nurses and nursing students.

Primacy of the patient is a component of the social contract of nursing which gives emphasis to the patients who are central to the practice of nursing. Healthcare professionals are bound to honor and respect patients’ wishes regardless of the patients’ background and socioeconomic status. Our profession requires us to promote health by practicing professionally, utilizing the knowledge and skills we have acquired through education and experience. Besides, it is our duty to protect individuals, families and communities who have entrusted us to help them heal. Also, we are

rganizing the delivery of health care around the needs of the patient may seem like a simple and obvious approach. In a system as complex as health care, however, little is simple. In fact, thirty years ago when the idea of “patient-centered care” first emerged as a return to the holistic roots of health care, it was swiftly dismissed by all but the most philosophically progressive providers as trivial, superficial, or unrealistic. Its defining characteristics of partnering with patients and families, of welcoming―even encouraging―their

A patient-centered care is to incorporate all the dynamics around a patient, including health management, personal values, family, and preferences. A knowledgeable nurse can provide an exceptional care for a patient and family by incorporating strategies such as bedside reporting, using proper communication, and advocating for a patient’s values and belief system. By implementing Knowledge, Skills and Attitutes (KSA) to nursing, a competent nurse can integrate care, fasten healing process and maintain continuity in patient-centered care. This in return will promote a quality and safe patient care and set standards of practice that the nursing profession strives in excelling.

A nurse is so much more than someone who administers medication, performs physical examinations, and establishes treatment plans. Nurses do not just listen to their patients needs, they advocate for them. They do not just take care of the suffering and ill, they have empathy for them. They do not just treat injuries and wounds, they heal the mind body and spirit. Being a nurse is not just a job title, it is an identity. It involves many core concepts and incorporates many values and beliefs. Being a nurse includes the concepts professionalism and patient and family - centered care. Both in which relate to the Benedictine values of the College of St. Scholastica.

care. Nursing care for any individual should not be compromised because of ethnicity, gender, spiritual values, disability, age, economic, social or health status, or any other grounds. Respect for an individual’s needs includes recognition of the individual’s place in a family and the community. For this reason, others should be included in the individual’s care. Respect for an individual’s needs, beliefs and values includes culturally sensitive care, and the need

Professional values are the foundation for practice; they guide interactions with client, colleagues, other professionals, and the public, by providing the framework for commitment to the Welfare of others. They are also belief or ideas to which an individual is committed and which are reflected in patterns of behavior. Institute of medicine (2000). In this article, I will define Altruism, Autonomy, Human Dignity, Integrity, and Social Justice. I will also identify how these values are demonstrated in our every day lives by other nurses and myself. According to Dougherty (1992) “Altruism is a concern

Nursing students enter school with a nurturing attitude, desiring to help and support individuals through their medical journey, but instructors often deviate away from this image and refuse to approach this model. During this time, nursing students learn technical and medical skills, not behavioral skills. Throughout the first semester, nursing students enter a “labeled of recognition of incongruity stage”, and nursing students begin to drop out because the nursing school failed to match their image and thought (228). Like physicians, the nursing students enter the “psyching out the faculty stage”, focusing on material emphasized in their classes by their instructors, and eventually, they recognize the faculty’s attention to professionalism, which causes them to enter the “role simulation stage”(228). The nursing students begin socializing with patient and physicians in a professional manner, and over time, this increases their confidence. During the second half of their training, they enter the provisional internalization and stable internalization stages as they internalize themselves as professional, usually accepting by their graduation.