The Importance Of Professionalism In Nursing

Theory is an arrangement of thoughts meant to describe something. These thoughts and ideas usually have basic principles that validate the purpose of the proposed theory. Nursing theory is a well thought out scholarly structure of concepts. These concepts are created to help guide nursing practice. They explain the fundamentals of nursing care. Multiple clinical decisions are based upon nursing theories. There are many different types of nursing theories developed primarily by nurses. Nursing theorist’s main goal is to examine nursing practice and explain the working or non-working parts

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

The National Council of State Boards in Nursing defines delegation as “transferring to a competent individual the authority to perform a selected nursing task in a selected situation” (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Resources section, 4). When delegating, the registered nurse (RN) assigns nursing tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) while still remaining accountable for the patient and the task that was assigned. Delegating is a management strategy that is used to provide more efficient care to patients. Authorizing other individuals to take on nursing responsibilities allows the nurse to complete other tasks that need tended to. However, delegation is done at the nurses’

A professional is characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace. Being professional should be a subconscious effort in the fact that it should always be applied. When employees are professional it helps the system run more efficiently and safely. A person must me a certain criteria when being evaluated on professionalism, a person is judged based on the clients; Attitude, Values, Communication techniques, and approachability. Clients who display a committed, dependable attitude will benefit more from work exerted, and overall be rewarded with incentives. Although professionalism may be in the eye of the

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.

This article discusses about the process of nursing delegation. For the process of nursing delegation, it must have strong communication, empowered staff, and organizational support. The guidelines identify 5 rights of delegation, which include right task, right circumstances, right person, right direction & communication, and right supervision & evaluation. When a delegator, such as a nurse, delegates, they will remain responsible for the tasks that were delegated. Delegation of an action/task is done based on the patient’s safety and their quality of care. Following the process enables a nurse to appropriately delegate to benefit the care of the patient.

A few perspectives related nursing delegation such as professional standards, legal aspects and ethics affects will be analyzed to clarify the authorizing mechanisms of nursing delegation. At the end, a personal reflection will be identified and described how I will approach to delegation in my own nursing practice in the future. Keys points about how to delegate in nursing will be summarized in conclusion section.

A nurse is given an opportunity to help patients, either if its by helping them through a very serious sickness or just helping a patient get to the bathroom on time, or a time when happiness is overfilling the room and a child is being born. Registered nurses provide a wide variety of patient care services (Mitchell, p.12). A Nurse must always know where to begin and where to stop, as any other career in the health field there is always something that cannot be done by everyone but only the certified person, a nurse must always remain inside her scope of practice to prevent any misunderstandings. A nurse must also follow a code of ethics , the code of ethics of the American Association of Medical Assistants states that a nurse should at all times render service with full respect and dignity of humanity, respect confidential information obtained by a patients file, uphold the honor and high principles the profession and accept its discipline, and last but not least always want to improve her services to better serve the health and well being of the community. (Mitchell, p.65).

In nursing, delegation helps in making use of the talent or skills of another person. One nurse transfers interventions which are under his/her practice roles to another to another member of the healthcare team who lacks such powers authorized under their scope of practice. Delegation can only take place if it is in patient’s best interest.

“Autonomous nursing practice as defined as full command of expert knowledge and allowing for accountability and authority in decision making” (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, pg. 47). A doctor will more likely see a nurse as a professional once they show competence and autonomy, which in turn, will provide a positive nurse-physician relationship due to the trust built between professionals. A physician must be able to trust a nurse’s judgment and assessment skills to be able to provide a collaborative care for the patient. The wheel of professionalism is designed to compare nurses' professional behavior with other professions, which places university-based education as central to professionalism, which then leads to a strong code of ethics, professional recognition and continuing education to maintain nursing competence (Yam, 2004). As a nurse achieves a status of professionalism, a nurse will view oneself as an equal partner in the health care team, which in turn will boost confidence and support for a more proactive and confident nurse.

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.

American Nurses Association (ANA) Standards of Professional Performance explains how all registered nurses do their work and activities consistently according to their professions that promote the wellbeing of their patients and communities (ANA, 2010a). The standards provide a mechanism to patients that they are been taken good care of and that the nurses know exactly what to do so as to provide high-quality care and the measures are in place to determine whether nursing care meets the standards. These activities are related to performance like ethics, quality of practice, education, communication, resources, leadership, environmental health, professional practice evaluation, and evidence-based practice and research. Registered nurses are responsible for their professional actions to themselves, their patients, their peers, and the community at large.

The role and responsibility of the nurse can be overwhelmingly complicated. Professional nursing is a fundamental component of health care, as patients and families view nurses as the foremost caring and trusted member of the multidisciplinary team (Van Wagoner, 2016). Unprofessional practice creates a threat to patient safety and can impact of patients feeling unsafe physiologically, psychologically and culturally ("Disruptive and unprofessional behavior", 2014).

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.

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