Nursing as a profession

1.  History of nursing as a profession:

Nursing is also a “professional” like doctors, engineers, etc. Its causes as an apparent and materialistic profession can be traced to a school founded by a legendary nurse “Florence Nightingale” in England in 1860. This position as a professional was further sealed by the “Nightingale Pledge”, developed in 1893.

Thus, the integrity of the character, knowing the value of this profession and one’s moral values, is the main to the value system of this profession. Currently, the healthcare system is disturbed by many forces, politics, vested association, and even self-serving individuals/groups.

Often the professional is pressurized to do something that disagrees their professional values, such as to mislead patients, alter records, or simply face and accept verbal abuse from the physicians, administrators, and even patients. However, in light of these pressures, maintaining honesty and do what is right, and ethical is the most important part of the modern nursing code.

2.  The occupation status of nursing professionals:

At first, the nursing profession was forced into the extra activity of physicians, as an accessory of physician’s work, directed towards the administration of “broom and bandages” and characterized by the inactive alternate rule in the amount of the case.

In the pre-modern age in western society, the care of the sick was not authorized to servants was the duty of nuns (as in sisters) and afterwards the professional sisters took over this non-spiritual role. In due course, the role of this profession has developed from an overwhelming to an independent collaborator in healthcare delivery.

The journey has taken them from the role of drug dispenser to trained professional in the cath lab, but simultaneously, they stillspecialize in the TLC (tender loving care). Yet, old psychology still carries on and there is certainly a poor public approach of the nursing profession, and as such, they are bitterly depreciated as a professional.

Further, even within the bounds of the healthcare system, they become easy targets for the positions of guilt and blame for the poor practice by failing and socially impaired system. Further, a hard physical and emotional work environment connected with insufficient financial rewards now makes this profession one of the most unattractive of all professions. Hence, few motivated and caring individuals are engaged in the profession.

3.  Threats and challenges to the nursing profession:

Presently, the nursing profession is faced with various challenges including low influence, poor public understanding, financial issues, a heavy line of duty, stressful conditions, and lack of professional satisfaction connected with shortage of nursing organization and the poor quality of training and education.

1. Hardships to improving influence of this profession. The most apparent factorsresponsible for this sorry state of affairs from the inflexible hospital attitudes and restraints of rights and prestige, which even a balanced physician, administrator, or lay public can surrender to.

In a hierarchical system of power within the practice environment, currently, the position of the professional is transitional. Although they truly belong to the smart class, being worried about the status and at risk of being pushed to the working-class status, they are forced to display an extremely professional attitude, vacant of any emotional content, which paradoxically stunts both their professional and emotional growth.

Thus, nursing remains a profession where extreme discipline remains almost like a religious order and its experts.

• The poor public approach of the profession. The reason for the poor image may be involving or depending on several factors:
• Poor media description, which is not truly thought of in the current practice.
• Seen lack of interest and poor delivery of care in some cases may contribute necessarily to the poor understanding.

• Monetary force.
• The material rectification of the profession is generally insufficient.
• Financial constraints within the healthcare system also make it to the greatest extent of the resources available for accomplishing standards of care and raising the pressure to cut the cost.
• These forces may also limit the favourable circumstances for nurses’ training and development.

• Lack of professional satisfaction. This might be even more essential. The nursing professional may be eagerly conditioned towards blind agreement of orders and actively discouraged from demonstrating mental preparedness, eagerness to do something, fantasy, and feelings, thus consigning them to a position of un-professional rather than a professional on equal footing.

• Assigned work. A major challenge is also the ever-increasing workload, both clinical and involved in managing as in Administrative.

• Clinical:This is mainly a result of the raised number of patients who are keenly ill and also having a more aged population with a higher level of reliance.
• Administrative: In the dominant culture of blaming and fear of action, there is an ever-increasing need for notation, the load of which generally falls on this profession. The problem is combined with a lack of appropriate secretarial support.

• Nursing shortage.
• An intense shortage of the professional inconsistently puts even more stress on the existing ones. Nursing often has to give more time trying to give good care or finish a task already continuous.
• Additionally, because nursing is now less attractive to the new aspirants, the remaining nurse’s population gets more aged.
• Poor staff custody also appears in areas of care with poor leadership around quality care. That is to say, there is no proper guidance available to the newly qualified labour force if at all they join the profession.

• Defective education, training, and professional development opportunities.
• Low entry standards:The reason for these low standards could be a lack of success to attract higher capacity individuals.
• The continuity of diploma instead of focusing on the degree aptitude.
• Efforts by the higher caliber nursing professional to migrate into teaching or analysis roles leaving the classical TLC to less gifted nursing professional.
• Deficiency of advice on career advancement.

• Nerve-racking working conditions. At this time, nursing might be the most stressful jobs for several reasons:
• The constant need to update knowledge and expertise to meet the demands of new and intricate treatment procedures.
• Lack of adequate leadership and administrations defects. More and more, hospital administrators are now management professionals without an analytical background, and as such, are not able to understand the clinical requirements and needs of this profession and they rather become invalidating and get started bullying to get jobs done instead of being sustenance and developing.
• Intensity against medical staff is another aspect being partly responsible for stress.

4.  What needs to be done?

The association can no longer manage to overlook this problem. Unless and until there is an urgent revision in the status of expertise in nursing, unless the physicians, administrators, and society in general consistently take awareness of the need of nursing professional for emotional protection and clear cut status, there will be no meaningful TLC or a significant nursing profession. The following steps are administered to achieve that:

1. The better bulge of the nursing profession. This is the first important step, i.e. give priority to the positive additions to the society.
2. Alluring media to improve the public view by focusing on positive accomplishments in response to the negative accusations or representations.
3. Developing image, giving priority to the aspects like dress code and professional punctuality, so that they look like a professional and not cleaning the consequent at a local railway station.
4. Improving their self-image by admiring the aspects of work they do themselves.

• Raised individual and professional financing. Provide funds for things considered important.
• Better medical care and abilities.
• Supplies for the staff training and development.
• Better payment and compensation.
• Support for patients, so that the professionals in the field of nursing does not feel helpless
• Giving employment to more qualified nurses. This would decrease the pressure on the professionals’ time and allow for capping of case hold.

• Rising the administrative support. This will also let nursing professional’s time for supplying quality care. This can be achieved through:
• Providing more and better assistants.
• Using IT tools to decrease the works’ stress.

• Improving education.
• Education expedition to attract bright students.
• Examine education of the professional, contracting the gap between theory and practice.

• Raising principles. Setting high reference point for the enrollment and consecutive development.
• Acknowledgement and awarding the role models, “employee of the month/week”. Supporting them to take a new action beyond the well-established professional standards (dress code, punctuality, etc.).
• Constant professional and social skill advancement opportunities, such as communication skills, good manner, authorizing patient, care planning, clinical leadership, administration skills, and also confronting device.
•  Assuming oneself for education and delivery of education, i.e. they have enough time to attempt training and train within their working hours.
• Provide greater access to patient-focused practice.

• Improving working conditions.
• Setting businesslike aim and line of duty.
• Better governmental support. Senior administrators need to support and respect the staff, listen to their beliefs and contributions, and thus be in close contact with them.
• Choice of nurse managers on the hospital board/group, so that they also become an important collaborator of healthcare delivery.

5.  Final Words:

The nursing profession is at the intersection. The prestige (influence) of this profession has not kept up to its growth, and as a result, fewer individuals are joining this profession.

There are various aspects for the inefficiency to grow, but the problems within the profession could be forwarded not only by the improved bulge of the profession.


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