Nursing, at its inception, was a service provided mostly by women. Far from a profession, it was considered a vocation; often a mere extension of the wife/mother role. Nurses were perceived as servants to the physicians with little power or ability to function independently. The predominant male presence in medicine, lack of formal education offered to nurses, and the subservient nature of the work significantly hindered its professionalization. Over time, as educational standards were created and stereotypical biases were surmounted, nursing slowly began to evolve (Ghadirian, Salsali, & Cheraghi, 2014). Professionalism in nursing encompasses a broad spectrum of core values and characteristics expected of each and every professional registered nurse. As one of the largest and most respected healthcare professionals (Maryland & Gonzalez, 2012), nurses are held to explicit standards first introduced almost 200 years ago. Florence Nightingale, often seen as a pioneer of nursing professionalism, was pivotal in reforming the profession of nursing. Her values of unbiased care, integrity, and respect, among others, were paramount in developing the professional identity of nurses in the 19th century. These values remain at the core of all professional nursing practice today (Selanders & Crane, 2012).
Advocacy and Professionalism Merriam-Webster defines advocacy as the act or process of supporting a cause or a proposal ("Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary,"
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
Changes in the late 1800's resulted in universities admitting women, thus allowing them to explore many more educational opportunities. These factors together provided the impetus for establishment of hospitals and schools to formally train nurses, with many schools opening for the first time in the 1870s. At the same time, though the need for nurses had been established and the importance of their role within the realm of medical care recognized, there was a great deal of opposition to the proposal that nurses should be formally educated. This attitude was epitomized by a well-known article of the time published in 1908, 'The over-trained nurse' in which the author asserted that nursing was not a “profession” but merely an “honorable calling”. Consistent with this notion, public perception viewed nursing as a job that women were generally suited to perform rather than one which required special skill and was even equated with a religious “calling”. This view, influenced by early nursing's relationship with religious orders remained far into the 20th century.(Lasseter, 1999).
Advocacy is a term that get used to defining a political process through which an individual or group aims at influencing decisions within economic, political and social systems within an institution. It includes a lot of activities ranging from people or organizations undertaking massive media campaigns, publishing research, commissioning or conducting exit polls. Or the filing of an amicus brief as well as public speaking (Daly, 2011). Also, advocacy can get defined as taking actions with an aim of helping people say what they want, represent their interests and secure their rights and above all to obtain services they need. As well as entering into partnerships with support groups in the promotion of social inclusion, social justice, and
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)
(2004) stated that, “motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under
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.
How do you define professionalism and how does professional responsibility influence your work? Professionalism means characteristics of qualities of a person, which reflects the profession. Nursing professionalism means characteristics of a nurse, which are crucial for promoting the life of sick people and optimizing the skills of a nurse herself for advancing her career to the higher level, which includes competency, specialized knowledge, smartness, honesty, responsible towards her duties, accountable for thoughts and actions, respectful, great level of patience, excellent communicator and others. Professionalism had direct relationship with the work- As a nurse I have so many professional responsibilities, which influence me to provide quality of care to the patients, motivate me to promote the safety of patients.
Nursing is a profession that has been around in one form or another since the beginning of civilizations. It has moved from an art that was handed down from generation to generation to the formal education and training programs of today. During this evolution, nursing has been influenced by four main themes: the folk, religious, military and servant images (Ellis, 2012, pp. 3-45, 71).
Nursing has been historically recognized as a women’s job since the era of Nightingale, until now, providing the assumption that
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.
In 1860, Florence Nightingale established modern nursing and ever since then, women have dominated the field. The role of the nurse is typically associated with feminine characteristics. These feminine qualities include being nurturing, caring, and gentle. Ever since practically the dawn of time, men have been characterized as tough, athletic, dominant beings. So when a man enters the field of nursing, he becomes the minority, meaning, he will account for less than half of the social majority. The lack of men in the field of nursing is referred to as occupational segregation by gender. A combination of lasting stereotypes and public beliefs that nursing has remained such a predominantly female career path. While it is great that women are educated and have access to a fulfilling job with a fairly high paygrade, the female dominance has caused men to struggle to receive the education they need and face
Nursing, a profession currently regarded with high esteem and respect, has been tied directly to feminism since its establishment. However, due to the nature of feminism and its implications throughout history, nursing hasn’t always been held with high regard in that respect. It promoted the idea of women assuming roles much greater than that of a caretaker. Nursing began to command for the higher education of women as nursing itself was highly driven to be a respected vocation, combining biomedical sciences and the innate caring and nurturing instincts within its nurses. This was not a passive process. It depended on innovators within, contributing to the education of nurses, and in turn, the education of women. As nursing was
Throughout history, society has considered women to be the natural caregivers of children, family, and community. Women were naturally thought of as nurses because the act was said to be an extension of their role in the home. They were called in to homes to help deliver babies or as wet nurses to breastfeed. In the 1800’s, women began taking care of soldiers. It was then that Florence Nightingale cared for soldiers in the Crimean War. During this time she revolutionized the role by setting standards of cleanliness and reducing infection. The legacy of nursing continues to be enriched by those who continue to follow the example of nursing pioneers. They refuse to be bound by others’ views
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