What is your view of Professional Nursing?
What is your view of “Professional Nursing”? Nursing is a profession that has its depth and breadth in meeting different health care needs of the population (American Nurses Association (ANA), 2010). What is it that makes a professional nurse? Is it caring for the patient with compassion and devotion? Based on the interviews conducted among the three categories of staff, it was echoed that professional nursing takes a lot more than just attending to the needs of patients.
From a professional perspective, nursing has a complex natural history of identification as a vocation with aspiration of being a profession from a long time (Brown & Libberton, 2007). In the past, the image of a nurse was as clear as, “the nurse is one whose studies give him or her just enough knowledge to follow and apply the decisions taken by the doctor or surgeon” (Gordon, 2000, p.218 cited in Harmer, 2010, p.295). Today, with the diversity of the nursing profession and the extension of the role of the nurse, defining a professional nurse is becoming complex. The identity of nursing is becoming blurred while trying to advance the profession (Harmer, 2010). According to Styles (2005) cited in Allen (2007), the attributes that are expected in professional nursing are higher academic education, a research based specialized body of knowledge, distinct service to society, a code of ethics, autonomy, accountability and authority over work.
Be this as it may, the International Labor Organization (ILO, 2005, p.12, L.20) described a professional nurse as “having the education and training recognized as necessary for assuming highly complex and responsible functions with authority to perform them”.
Much of the literature claims that a key characteristic of professional nursing is being knowledgeable in nursing (Smith & Godfrey, 2002). Knowledge is of great importance, but nurses need to possess specialized knowledge in the area
From a professional perspective, nursing has a complex natural history of identification as a vocation with aspiration of being a profession from a long time (Brown & Libberton, 2007). In the past, the image of a nurse was as clear as, “the nurse is one whose studies give him or her just enough knowledge to follow and apply the decisions taken by the doctor or surgeon” (Gordon, 2000, p.218 cited in Harmer, 2010, p.295). Today, with the diversity of the nursing profession and the extension of the role of the nurse, defining a professional nurse is becoming complex. The identity of nursing is becoming blurred while trying to advance the profession (Harmer, 2010). According to Styles (2005) cited in Allen (2007), the attributes that are expected in professional nursing are higher academic education, a research based specialized body of knowledge, distinct service to society, a code of ethics, autonomy, accountability and authority over work.
Be this as it may, the International Labor Organization (ILO, 2005, p.12, L.20) described a professional nurse as “having the education and training recognized as necessary for assuming highly complex and responsible functions with authority to perform them”.
Much of the literature claims that a key characteristic of professional nursing is being knowledgeable in nursing (Smith & Godfrey, 2002). Knowledge is of great importance, but nurses need to possess specialized knowledge in the area
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