Professionalism in Nursing

The assignment discusses the concept of professionalism in nursing, highlighting its importance for maintaining competent and safe nursing practices. It explores the characteristics of professional nurses, including openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, and emphasizes the need for nurses to promote a safety culture, informed decision-making, and ethical behavior.

Running Head: Nursing
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NURSING ASSIGNMENT

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Professionalism in Nursing..............................................................................................................3
Characteristics of Professional Nurse..............................................................................................3
Appropriate Behaviour....................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Professionalism in nursing is important for maintaining competent and safe nursing practices.
The nurses require having an understanding of the professionalism to attain the desired level of
performance (Manojlovich & Ketefian, 2016). The current assignment deals with analysis on the
understanding of the concept of professionalism in nursing. The assignment also includes
discussion on the characteristics of professional nurses and the appropriate behaviour from the
nurses.
Professionalism in Nursing
Professionalism in nursing is necessary for obtaining a framework for the development of the
clinical competency checklists. The professional standards are also effective for proficiency
evaluation. The professionalism is also important ensuring that the care provided by a nurse is
complying with the applicable rules and regulations as well as the established organizational
policies (Tanaka et al., 2016). Documentation of the patient and care details is an important
aspect of nursing. Professionalism ensures that the appropriate documentation works are being
done by the nurses. The nurses should provide patient-centred service to achieve the best
outcomes. The nurses also need to minimize the risk of harm for the patients. Professionalism
encourages the nurses to offer quality patient-centred services and reducing the exposure to risks
by enhancing the knowledge-base through continuing education and experience.
Characteristics of Professional Nurse
The characteristics of professional nurse can be described using the Big Five Traits. The five
characteristics of professional nurses include openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism (Carpenter, 2018). The openness enables the nurses to appreciate
the new thoughts and ideas. High openness among nurses is necessary for not being judgmental
about the values and lifestyle of the patients. The conscientiousness among nurses is another trait
that helps the professionals to control impulses and promote self-regulation. The
conscientiousness also promotes the planned behaviour among nurses instead of acting
spontaneously. High level of conscientiousness ensures that the nursing professionals are

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behaving in a planned and orderly manner. The extroversion is a characteristic that reflects the
connection of a person with the outer world. The high level of extroversion indicates that the
individuals have a strong connection with the social world whereas the lower level of
extroversion indicates lack of social connection. In the case of nurses, high extroversion is
effective for developing a connection with the patients. Therefore, the high extroversion among
nurses is effective for dealing with the trauma and burnout among the patients. Agreeableness is
a characteristic that influences the concern for harmony. The nurses, who have a high level of
agreeableness, show greater interest to compromise with others. The nurses with a high level of
agreeableness also show less self-interest. High agreeableness enables nurses to develop a strong
and trusting relationship with the patients. Neuroticism influences emotional stability. The lower
level of neuroticism makes the nurses able to cope with the stress and gain control over
emotional reactions. On the contrary, the higher level of conscientiousness makes the nurses
vulnerable tothe stress and negative feelings. Presence of openness, conscientiousness,
extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism helps the nurses to show professionalism at the
work.
Appropriate Behaviour
The key desired behaviour of nurses includes promotion of safe healthcare culture, sustainable
health and wellbeing of the community and informed decision-making (Choi & Lee, 2018). The
nurses in a healthcare setting should deliver safe practice and support other professionals also to
deliverthe quality services. Nursing professionals should also act as a guide for consumers
regardingthe standard conduct and behaviour. Professional nurses should take a leading role in
establishing and maintaining standards of practice. Nursing professionals need to take several
decisions on the basis of situations. The nurses need to incorporate the core values in the
decision-making (Jang, 2016). The nurses should also be able to justify that their actions are
aligning with the core values, rules and regulations. Finally, the nurses require reflecting
professionalism while using their skills and knowledge in clinical, non-clinical, paid and unpaid
works. The nurses require bearing the clinical governance responsibilities, take a leading part in
the research, education, advisory activities, and policy development and regulation incorporation.
Nursing professionals also require acting in an ethical manner. The nurses should show respect

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to thoughts and beliefs and treat all individuals with equal respect and dignity. The nurses should
value diversity in society.
Conclusion
The discussion on professional nursing practices indicates that professionalism is necessary to
maintain the quality of care and attain desirable outcomes. The professional nurses should show
high openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and lower level of neuroticism.
The nurses also need to promote a safety culture, informed decision-making and ethical
behaviour in the healthcare setting.

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References
Carpenter, M. (2018). The new managerialism and professionalism in nursing. In Health and the
Division of Labour (pp. 165-195). Routledge.
Choi, S. Y., & Lee, M. A. (2018). Effects of job embeddedness and nursing professionalism on
intent to stay in hospital nurses. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration, 24(3),
234-244.
Jang, I. (2016). The effects of emotional regulation between clinical practice stress and nursing
professionalism in nursing students. Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science
Society, 27(3), 749-761.
Manojlovich, M., & Ketefian, S. (2016). The effects of organizational culture on nursing
professionalism: Implications for health resource planning. Canadian Journal of Nursing
Research Archive, 33(4).
Tanaka, M., Taketomi, K., Yonemitsu, Y., & Kawamoto, R. (2016). Professional behaviours and
factors contributing to nursing professionalism among nurse managers. Journal of nursing
management, 24(1), 12-20.