Professionalism In Nursing Profession

The nursing population had been in the public spotlight in the past few years. From recognising the contributions of nurses during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak to surfacing reports of abuse of elderly patients in nursing homes, the profession of nursing has been under scrutiny by society. Shields (2013) mentioned that “nursing has suffered a lack of understanding” by the community who associates nurses with terms such as angels or “handmaidens”. Thus, despite efforts to enhance the professionalization of nursing, there is still debate about whether it is considered a profession or not. Definition of a profession includes the use of clinical reasoning, using a body of knowledge for assessment and to justify decisions, being responsible and accountable as well as having to abide by a code of ethics (Royal College of Nursing, 2003). These are characteristics which the nursing profession incorporates into its practice. In addition, Siriwardena & Gillam (2014) added that professionalism defines one’s promise to excellent practice, giving respect to others, take responsibility for one’s own actions and display moral and ethical attitudes.

It states that nurses should exhibit professional behaviour and practice in line with nursing standards to deliver safe, proficient and ethical care (SNB, 2011). As a nurse, our principle duty of care to the client is to make sure that they are in the safe hands of proficient and ethical nurses. Patients entrust their health into our hands when they come to the hospital to receive treatment, therefore we, as nurses, need to be responsible and answerable for our actions so as maintain the trust of clients. Scrivener (2011) mentions that nurse owe the patient the responsibility to perform the task proficiently and skilfully, furthermore be accountable for doing the task. Therefore being the staff nurse in-charge, the RN in the above case study is still held responsible and accountable for the care of her patient even though she had passed on the task to another person. She needs to ensure that safe and correct care is given to the

This can range from how one behaves, his or her attitude to grooming standards. Many nurses now take on more roles and responsibilities in patient care as compared to in the past, a sign of how nursing has evolved from a just a job to becoming a profession. Educational opportunities as well as career advancement has also developed over the years to cater to the higher status of nurses and nursing. However, most members of the public are neither informed nor aware of the changing job scope and responsibilities of the professional nurse and thus view nurses unfavourably. Hence, this is one of the public’s perceptions of nurses that need to be changed. The Singapore Nursing Board had come up with several guidelines such as Standards of Practice, value statements as well as the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to guide professional nursing practice. In the above case scenario, some standards of practice have been applied to demonstrate how the staff nurse can use it to guide his or her professionalism in routine day to day