Professionalism in Nursing
The definition of a nurse is someone who cares for the sick, old or young; someone who is able to provide medical assistance. They provide care to patients in hospitals, clinics, and many other healthcare facilities. They work as a part of the healthcare team with; physicians, surgeons, technicians, assistants, and many more professionals, to ensure that their patients are getting the utmost care needed to ensure that they leave the healthcare facility, fit and healthy. Nurses work on the front lines of health care; they are not in the background or behind the scenes; they work face-to-face with patients in their highly hands-on profession. While doing a number of tasks, it is a nurse’s duty to maintain professionalism while in the workplace.
The first trait a nurse must possess is compassion. The definition of compassion can mean having sympathy and wanting to help a person who is going through a difficult time. Compassion comes from that moment when you can see the world through another person’s eyes. In healthcare, many believe that compassion can start to be felt when people begin to love their work and who truly understand why they do what they do. In many healthcare facilities, compassion can be seen when patients are treated with dignity, respect, and empathy; through communication skills and actions. It can be particularly powerful when a patient is feeling vulnerable, in physical or psychological pain, especially when they are afraid. Patients do not want to be treated as a number; they want assurance that the professionals around them care about what’s happening, what they can do about it and most importantly, keeping the patient informed as to how they're doing it. This kind of information empowers patients to deal with their illness in the best way possible. However, compassion isn’t just about talking to patients; it is also about making them feel safe, in a clean environment where they can feel at home. The most valuable gift that can be given in a healthcare environment, is time. Time to allow the patients to speak about what matters most to them and most importantly, time for the staff to listen. When genuine interest without being judgemental by staff is shown to the patients, this empowers the patient to make decisions about future steps that will be taken. If enough attention is focused on things that matter most to the patients, trust will be gained, which is something all healthcare workers must gain from their patients. Once this trust is in place, it can do various things; improve clinical outcomes, improve financial outcomes, empower patients to improve their quality of life, and most importantly, improve the morale of staff.
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Another essential trait a nurse must acquire in order to accomplish professionalism in nursing is teamwork. One of the key elements to success is teamwork. In healthcare many professionals work interdependently to achieve a common goal; patient treatment. Some benefits of teamwork are; improves the quality of patient care, reduces length of stay, and reduces workload issues between health care workers. Operating as teams ensures that the workplace is more enjoyable as well as a reduction in safety issues. A key component of teamwork is communication; when roles are clear among team members, there is less confusion about patient treatment plans as well as patients are able to experience greater clarity about their treatment and expected outcome. A great amount of explicit communication must be implemented. This can be achieved by a variety of written documents and of course verbal notes and conversations. Teamwork can also be very critical as it can produce a better environment; always make sure that the members apart of your team that is working have one vision and are aware of the goals that you are trying to reach. By doing this it creates a much better atmosphere for your team as well as patients.
A final component that is under the branch of professionalism in nursing is accountability. The high-intensity environments in a healthcare facility require everyone in an organization to be accountable. Staff should be engaged and should be able to make and keep commitments. Providing the best patient care requires everyone to be accountable for their behavior and their commitment to a culture of nursing excellence. A nurse can be accountable to their profession as they represent the largest group of providers in the healthcare industry. It is a nurse’s responsibility to practice within their scope of practice and not beyond. One way a nurse can be accountable to their profession can be to participate as members of professional organizations. Nurses are also accountable to their patients; patients put their trust in nurses when they enter the healthcare facility as they believe their nurse is educated and will provide competent care for them. It is important to realize that patients can and should be able to make their own decisions when possible. Respect is another important factor for patients as everyone has individual differences, such as religion, spirituality, and cultural difference. Advocacy is also important because patients are not always going to advocate for themselves, either because of a lack of knowledge or being physically unable to speak for themselves. Nurses can also be accountable to the health care team. Nurses bring their skills as well as specialized knowledge to the situation that is presented to them, and the nurse shares this info with the other members of the health care team. The healthcare team then collaborates to come up with the best treatment for the patient. The nurse should perform the assigned nursing tasks, competently and when scheduled. The nurse is held accountable for any task that is delegated to unlicensed assistive staff. Nurses are also accountable to themselves; nurses must have personal standards, and whilst developing these personal standards nurses must be true to themselves. Furthermore, nurses are accountable for themselves while taking care of their personal, physical, mental, and spiritual health. Often nurses find themselves busy taking care of everyone, they tend to forget about themselves. The biggest problem with accountability is unclear job descriptions; this happens when issues arise in the workplace and nurses will say it is the doctor’s responsibility and vice versa. This problem stems from unclear job descriptions, the more detailed job descriptions are written for all healthcare professionals, the more accountable they can be held. Another way to hold nurses accountable is to hold regular and honest performance evaluations. These frequent performance evaluations will remind nurses how they are supposed to be performing and can help keep them on track to attain peak performance.
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