Academic Excellence: Professionalism in Nursing

Professionalism in Nursing

Introduction

The idea of professionalism in nursing can be understood from the concepts of profession and professionals. A profession involves a chosen and paid occupation that results from long time training with formal qualifications. In this respect the individuals who have undergone the training and exhibited the skills acquired during the training and in relation to the requirements of their profession are called professionals. Nursing for instance requires formal training and in the execution of duties the nurses are required to follow and behave in a specific manner. Adams and Miller (2001) noted that the idea and concept of professionalism in nursing can be traced back to the work and frameworks of service in nursing introduced by Florence Nightingale. As a missionary, she set high standards of commitment to service, passion in regards to giving and loving oneself and others through excellence in service. In this regard, we nurses also have core values that we uphold and guide us in our day to day service to the people.

Core values of nursing

Within any profession, there are standard values of behavior and mode of service delivery that is unique to it. Within the nursing profession, there are core values that are similar across the globe. For instance all nurses are expected to uphold honesty in their service, a sense of responsibility in promoting human dignity and upholding that all patients are equal. In the course of service, pursuit of new knowledge to equip them with the changing world of medicine and alongside the desire to end patient suffering gives the nurses a code of conduct (Weis and Schank, 2000). The professional pool seems to have certain common value that all professional s are expected to uphold. Among the values nursing shares with other professions include integrity and accountability where they are expected to accept responsibility of their actions.

There are various indicators of professionalism in nursing especially from the way the nurse behaves and performs her duties. Attitude in the nursing profession is so important that it enables us concentrate on our work of promoting good health to all and appreciating that there is need to thank God for the life given to us. Without positivity to others it becomes hard to attend to the sick and uphold to our core values of service (Wynd, 2002). Nurses always show urgency in their quest to promote health as demonstrated by the admission and care offered in emergency hospital cases. This is a clear indication that we uphold promotion of human health and dignity in our service. A common belief that your appearance can judge your level of professionalism has been a building block to the upholding the core values. Through our appearance and while in service sends a message that we care about ourselves thus able to transfer this care to other and especially those in need.

Improvements

Although the nursing fraternity has upheld the core values in their service delivery, there is need for a show of solidarity when performing duties. There should be an observable urge to help others as patients and as fellow nurses because working as a team promotes good service delivery. Like any other profession, there are challenges that come along with service delivery and thus we must brace ourselves and face the challenges to help promote the core call of the profession; service delivery with dignity.

In summary, nursing is a profession that requires unique training from which a nurse understands the basic mode of service delivery and the core values expected to be upheld in the due course.

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