My Practice That Identify Me As A Professional In Nursing

Compassion, commitment, courage; three words that I would associate with the role of being a nurse. By going into nursing I believe that I will be able to make a difference, even changing one life for the better is far more rewarding than anything I could ever imagine. I have always admired the role nurses play in the lives of so many, not only patients, but also the families of those in their care. I believe that it is essential for a nurse to be able to listen and communicate with not only their patients but also those around them.

The role of a nurse is viewed as stressful, so nurses need to be emotionally ready and be physically fit to participate in delivering care. Acts of kindness, trustworthiness, promoting privacy, ensuring dignity, being engrossed into the artistry of caring and engaging in anti-discriminatory practice (Baughan & Smith 2008) by respecting everyone, irrespective of age, culture, gender, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and the condition from which they are afflicted, are caring indicators of a nurse.

Title: Using examples relevant to your discipline, define professional identity as it relates to health and human service delivery and discuss how industry, professional and quality agencies guide the provision of the safe and effective patient or client care in your discipline.

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

The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics provides many professional traits that can be incorporated to an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals such as compassion and respect, advocacy, accountability for nursing practice and participation in advancement of the nursing career (Cherry, 2011). Compassion is a very important aspect of the nursing profession. It would be very difficult to be a nurse without being compassionate. Nurses demonstrate compassion and respect daily in their work by actively listening to patients’ and family members’ problems and concerns and by empathy when appropriate. Advocacy is a nursing trait constantly used by the entire interdisciplinary team. Nurses advocate for patients’ right of autonomy for decision making in regards to their care, treatments and procedures. Also, nurses are in the best position to serve as a bridge between the patient and the interdisciplinary team. Accountability is so essential in the nursing profession. Nurses are accountable for their own nursing practices and for our patients.

Four professional traits that can be seen in Americas Nursing Association Code of Ethics are: Leadership, communicative, knowledgeable, and compassionate. Leadership is an important trait as a nurse. A nurse should be able to delegate tasks and make decisions. Also, need to be able to communicate between the patient, staff, and family to provide continuity of care. Being knowledgeable is important to be able to provide the

The ANA Code of Ethics provides nine provisions to guide the ethical responsibilities of the nursing profession. Within those provisions certain professional traits stand out that define the qualities of a great nurse. The four professional traits from the ANA Code of Ethics that I would bring to an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals would be respect, compassion, commitment, and accountability. Respect is a major professional trait embodied mostly in the first provision of the Code of Ethics. The nurse should show respect for every individual whom the nurse interacts with including patients, families, and colleagues, for human needs and values, for human dignity, for patient decisions (American Nurses Association, 2001). I treat others as I would like to be treated myself, always with respect. Compassion runs side by side with respect and a nurse should always treat everyone with respect and compassion. One aspect of compassion mentioned in Provision 3.6 of the Code of Ethics guides the nurse in extending compassion to colleagues who are in recovery from illness or when illness interferes with job performance (American Nurses Association, 2001). This might be the case when a nurse encounters a co-worker whose practice may be impaired while on the job. The nurse should show

Among the numerous professional attributes the primary nurse uses, such as superior communicator and an effective listener, empathy is of most importance. If the nurse is able to understand and feel what others are going through, he or she will be well suited to provide care to the dying patient (Altshuler, 2013). Also the professional nurse must be able to separate his or her career from their daily life, being able to decompress and leave work behind is an important attribute in this type of nursing care.

When I walked into the facility, I noticed a client was waving at me to come over to the client. I walked over to the client and the client started spelling out my name in sign language. I had taken a sign language camp several years ago. I started to do sign language with the client. To see the smile of the clients’ face was uplifting. Having this experience, I was able to establish my professional identity by communicating with a deaf client who wanted someone to sit down and play a game of Monopoly. As stated in the article Nursing Professional Identity: an infant or the one with Alzheimer’s, Professional identity includes acquiring insight to professional functioning, creating professional ideals and values. It can be defined as attitudes,

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.

I would like to have compassion, provide holistic care, and be culturally competent. Compassion Compassion is the act of caring. It is the concern of others through sympathy and empathy. Compassion is a quality each and every nurse should have. It helps develop trust with the patient as well as build a relationship.

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).

Other attributes of a professional nurse would include genuine compassion and caring for patients. This helps to instill feelings of hope in times of turmoil, while

My nursing background is in women and children’s health care. As a clinician, I have practiced in acute and primary care settings. My professional interests include nursing genomics, nursing leadership, and new program development.

I think it’s essential to your profession to be aware of your attendance, to work well with your co-workers, to practice dressing appropriately for your job, and to be attentive to your patients; this can transmit or be viewed as achievements. I practice these qualities of values by having proper etiquettes, thinking oneself as efficient in care, by my body language, maintaining a well-ordered body appearance, and maintaining eye contact with whom I was speaking to. First impressions are important when caring for patients, talking with families and understanding how staff reacts to me. All these distinguishing characteristics speak dynamically about my abilities, ethics, proficiencies, and how compassionate you are. (Living Values, n.d.).