Nursing as a Profession of Choice

Nursing is a noble profession pursued by people having passion to serve humanity. It has evolved into one of the most respected professions in the healthcare industry worldwide. As far as a hospitalized patient is concerned, a nurse is more involved in his service than any other medical or allied health professional. A nurse is delegated the most crucial responsibility of the physical, psychological and emotional care of the patient. Healthcare industry depends heavily on the nursing force for its service delivery and competent nurses are the most important assets in any medical establishment.

Many people still regard Nursing to be an occupation preferred by the students of comparatively low intellectual levels. The decision-making regarding the choice of the programme to be pursued after the higher secondary education is sometimes carried out much before the student himself realizes his actual potentials and talent. For some of the communities in the country, Nursing is a traditional occupation. Even some of the Nursing institutes in India are comfortable with this notion about the profession. Nursing as an occupation has been deep-rooted in this soil since pre-independence period. Unfortunately, the remnants of its core occupational nature have been impeding its highly inevitable transformation into a professional category.

An occupation and a profession are different in their nature. An occupation is essentially a job done by a person to make a living or to spend free time, without any further obligations. It is just an engagement with any job that earns you money or meets some other form of human needs. You can make walking your occupation. For some, business is an occupation. The work that you do as part of your occupation need not be officially regulated nor be controlled by a set of fundamental principles and value systems. A particular job can be part of an occupation or that of a profession.

A profession on the other hand is a highly regulated