Chapter 3: Nursing as a Profession

Question 1

Stereotype: women were intellectually inferior to men, and hence women were not called on to make decisions or think for themselves.
Sexuality revolution: women began to do what they wanted for work.
Illegal to say you’re a nurse when you are not a nurse.
More women are seen to be nurses, then men even today.

Answer 1

Mid-1800s: women’s social roles

Question 2

11th, 12th, and 13th centuries: men as nurses under military and religious orders

Answer 2

Stereotype: men supply strength or control of patients when needed (psychiatric nursing).
Men are likely to be younger, employed full-time in nursing, have non-nursing education, and nursing is a second career.

Reasons why men become nurses:
1. Desire to help people
2. Nursing is a growth profession with career paths
3. Desire for a stable career

1974: American Assembly for Men in Nursing (AAMN)

Question 3

Social Content of Nursing: Image

Answer 3

Media depiction of nurse

Nursing caps and other forms of identification

2014 Gallup: Nurses were rated the highest among a number of professions and occupations on honesty and ethics.

2002 Johnson & Johnson campaign to “enhance image of nursing profession…”
The truth about nursing is a nonprofit organization with the mission to “increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care.”

Question 4

Social Content of Nursing: Diversity

Answer 4

Nurses need to be educated to be aware and respectful of culture differences.
Cultural competence, cultural sensitivity, and cultural humility.
National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care.

Question 5

Social Content of Nursing: Shortage

Answer 5

Causes of nursing shortage: internal causes and external causes; international nursing shortage
Shortage of nursing facility
Doctoral-prepared and master’s prepared are more than 50 years of age
Nurses with advanced degreed are hired in more lucrative private sector.
Not enough doctoral- or master’s-prepared nurses are produced to meet demands for education.

Question 6

Initiatives to Provide Stable Workforce of RN’s

Answer 6

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: baby boomers population is the largest generation.
Robert Wood Foundation: grants, funds for nursing schools, grow schools in rural areas (ex: Lambuth)
Johnson & Johnson’s Campaign for Nursing’s Future: nurses are given more of a say in what they do
ANCC Magnet Recognition Program

Question 7

Characteristics of a Profession: Flexner

Answer 7

Not just the skills set, but intellectual training; nursing is a science. What nurses are taught is specific to nursing, nurse training is what is required to be learned before becoming a nurse; standards set at a national level.

Question 8

Characteristics of a Profession: Hall

Answer 8

Ethical responsibility

1. Use of a professional organization as a primary point of reference
2. Belief in the value of public service
3. Belief in self-regulation
4. Commitment to a profession that goes beyond economic incentives
5. A sense of autonomy in practice

Question 9

The Process of Professionalism:

Answer 9

1. Practitioners performed full-time work in the discipline
2. They determined work standards, identified a body of knowledge, and established educational programs in institutions of higher learning.
3. They promoted organization into effective occupational associations, and then worked to establish legal protection that limited practice of their unique skills by outsiders
4. Finally, they established codes of ethnics.

Question 10

WHO (2010): “Its is no longer enough for health workers to be professional. They also need to be inter-professional.”

Answer 10

Interprofessionality

Question 11

Four Domains of Inter-professional Collaborative Practice Competency:

Answer 11

1. Values/ethics for inter professional practice
2. Roles/responsibilities
3. Inter professional communication
4. Teams and Teamwork

Question 12

Nursing as a Profession: Eight Characteristics of a Profession:

Answer 12

1. Services provided are vital to humanity and the welfare of society.
2. A special body of knowledge is continually enlarged through research
3. The services involve intellectual activities: individual responsibility (accountability) is a strong feature.
4. Practitioners are educated in institutions of higher learning.
5. Practitioners are relatively independent and control their own policies and activities (autonomy).
6. Practitioners are motivated by service (altruism) and consider three work an important component of their lives.
7. There is a code of ethics to guide the decisions and conduct of practitioners.
8. There is an organization (association) that encourages and supports high standards of practice.

Question 13

Standards Established by the Profession: Three major documents

Answer 13

1. Nursing’s social policy statement: the essence of the profession: obligation to patients
2. Nursing: scope and standards of practice: expectations of professional role
3. Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: strengthen and guide decision-making.

You can not leave patient care; until you give/pass care to another nurse, must be relieved, will be fined and in trouble with client abandonment. You have an obligation to treat patients.

Question 14

promotion of a supportive and health work environment, cooperation, and recognition of interdependence among members of the nursing profession.

Professional nurses demonstrate collegiality by sharing with, supporting, assisting, and counseling other nurses and nursing students.

Collegial Behaviors

Answer 14

Collegiality

Question 15

Barriers to Professionalism in Nursing:

Answer 15

Varying levels of education for entry into practice: diploma (ADN (associates), BSN (bachelors), MSN (masters))
Gender issues
Historical influences: connections with religious orders and military
External conflicts: tension between nursing and medicine
Internal conflicts: educational differences