Professionalism In The Nursing Field

The primary concept of professionalism refers to the attendance, accountability, ability to work with difficult people, expressing good work ethics, and critical thinking when faced with dilemma. (Shepard, 2014). Nursing students are expected to gain and demonstrate the skill of professionalism in their schools and in clinical setting. Nursing is a profession and not a job because, it is a chosen paid occupation that requires formal education and prolonged training. Therefore, nurses as professionals are expected to display competent and skillful behaviors that aligns with their profession (Kathleen, 2013). Professionalism in nursing should not start when people become nurses, it should start as they gain knowledge of diseases and human responses in

I thought nurses follow the order of physicians and they act as aides to patients. I thought nurses only perform menial or clean up tasks. I also thought that most nurses are only certified and are not really committed enough to get their baccalaureate. This notion was mainly because most nurses wear scrubs and it is hard to distinguish between a certified nurse and a registered nurse. Now, I have a totally different view of nurses. I see nurses as patients’ best friends, because they act as caregivers, advocates, teachers and decision makers for patients. I now have a strong perception that nurses are the major thing between patients and death. Nurses are very strong people regardless of their education level because no matter what is going on in their personal lives, they are always there for their patients. What challenged my previous thinking the most is priority in nursing process. I used to think that nurses are lazy because, sometimes it takes them a long time to attend to me when I call them. Now I understand that they have to prioritize and would have to first attend to patients with life threatening