Professional Identity in Nursing: Techniques and Policies

Running head: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY 1
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Name
Institutional Affiliation

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY 2
Nursing is a profession in healthcare where the individuals employed are tasked with
taking care of all the needs of their patients, not just their medical needs hence they provide all-
rounded care. Nurses make use of various techniques with the aim of making it easy to do their
jobs. Some of these techniques include having a therapeutic relationship with their patients and
providing evidence-based care while also utilising both the NMBA Code of Conduct for Nurses
(2018) and the Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) to guide how they carry out their
activities (Guzys & Tori, 2018). Therefore this essay will examine a case study, discuss how the
two techniques can be used to resolve the issues in the case, also how the two policies can be
utilised to ease them in solving the problems and in the end, it will show their importance n the
nursing profession.
In Mary’s case, she s a nurse in a residential aged which means that she works in a
facility that provides medical care and services for the elderly individuals n the society. She like
other individuals in the nursing profession are governed by the NMBA Code of Conduct for
Nurses (2018), and the Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2016) on how to behave with
and treat patients during while they are at work. The NMBA has a number of standards that they
set that nurses and midwives in Australia follow when providing therapeutic and evidence-based
care to their patients. Some of these standards include first they are supposed to build, develop,
maintain and bring to an end relationships with their patients in a manner that bridges
professional and personal relationships which means the care that they give is not too robotic or
crosses any own boundaries.they are also supposed to communicate well with their
patents,ensure that they perform their duties and also report when there s wrongdoing. In this
case, Mary did not make an effort to build any relationship with her patent; she spent the
majority of her time on her station and not going around interacting with those under her care.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY 3
Therefore she does not follow and meet the standards set by the NMBA for her profession
(Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018).
Evidence in this case study shows that Mary, as a nurse, has not established any
relationship with her patients or those who work with her, and it is not therapeutic or person-
centred in nature. The first thing is that she does not go on rounds to ensure that all her patients
have their needs taken care of instead she chooses to spend most of her time on the nursing
station. This shows a lack of communication with those under her care since they would not look
uncared for when her shift ends meaning she does not go round talking and questioning them or
even performing her duties which includes changing beddings and washing the patients who
cannot do t for themselves. Also, there is lack of a collaborative spirit among the nurse while
working; this is shown in two ways. First, she just sits on her desk meaning she does not interact
with her fellow colleagues or else she would have asked for help if that is the issue causing her
not perform the duties. Secondly, the colleagues go directly to the supervisor instead of first
talking to Mary about the problems with her that they have observed and ask her to remedy it
first which shows that they do not feel the need to build each other first (Cashin, et.al, 2017)
Mary could turn her nursing profession and make it better by practising therapeutic and
person-centred techniques to build relationships with their patients. First, she should ensure that
she talks and communicates with her patients when she goes on her rounds, ensuring she knows
all the necessary and essential details about each patient. What this does is that it creates trust
with the patient who will feel important and not neglected hence happy wich positively affects
their condition. Next, while communicating with each patient Mary should reveal some personal
details about herself with them this will solidify the trust they have with each other and making
the whole a bit better. Another method is that whenever the patient asks for anything doable,