The Conspicuous Lack of Respectful Professional Identity in Nursing

The assignment discusses the concept of professional identity in the nursing profession, highlighting the importance of recognizing and respecting one's own profession. The author argues that a lack of self-respect and professional identity among nurses contributes to stereotypes and misconceptions about the nursing profession. The blog by Caitlin Brassington is used as an example of a nurse who has successfully demonstrated a respectful and morally adequate professional identity, despite facing belittlement from her acquaintance. The article concludes that developing a strong professional identity is crucial for nursing professionals, and that social media can be a valuable platform for connecting with other nurses and gaining support.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY OF A REGISTERED NURSE
Professional identity of a registered nurse
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

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Thesis statement: The profession of nursing deserves its due recognition in the form of
respectful professional identity.
Nursing is a profession that stands as the pillar in the health care industry holding all the
different components together like the proverbial glue, ever since the introduction of this
profession by Florence Nightingale. It has to be understood that nurses are those healthcare
professionals who act not only in caring for the patient but It is also the medium of
communication between the patient and the medical practitioner ensuring optimal treatment and
care for the patients (Johnson, Cowin, Wilson, & Young, 2012). According to Andrew, patients
have a much more respectful and interactive relationship with the nurses as they spend most of
the time while being in the healthcare facilities in the care of the nursing professionals, hence the
patients find nurses to be much more approachable when it comes to sharing their grievances
and feedback (Andrew, 2012). However sadly, despite nursing being one of the noblest
professions available, it has still not achieved its due recognition in the society. The profession of
nursing is in dire need of respect and recognition in the society which can only be provided to
them by developing a respectful professional identity for them. This essay will explore the above
mentioned thesis statement taking the example of the blog by Caitlin Brassington, where the
author expresses her grievances at being belittled in the society for being ‘just a nurse’ in
profession.
Nursing as a profession represents a lot of different attributes, starting from courage
compassion, selflessness, patience, perseverance and most of all kindness. A profession that has
as many moral attributes associated with it demands a level of emotional investment from the
professional that no other profession can even attempt to demand. Nurses have to complete a
diverse range of activities and responsibilities on a daily basis, designing a patient centered care,

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carrying out the care plan, monitoring the response of the patient to the care plan, educating the
patient and engaging him into the care plan, and communicating with the patient regarding any
grievances that the patient might have with the care plan, and lastly providing compassionate
psychological support and counseling to the patients in order to help him attain faster recovery
(Hoeve, Jansen, & Roodbol, 2014). In order to complete all these activities at the same time for
different patients on a daily basis the nurses straw just need to put in long hours, they need to
invest emotional attachment and extreme effort from their end for restoring the health of the
society. However despite all of the contributions of the nurses to the society, it is a profession
that is seriously be result even in this current age. Many of the health care research writers have
hinted at the importance of the nursing professionals in the health care industry for it to sustain,
there is still lack of respect for the nursing professionals, and there are two prime contributing
factors behind, the lack of a respectful professional identity in the society for the nurses, and the
lack of knowledge and awareness in the mass about the contribution of the nursing profession in
the present day health care (Hallam, 2012).
Drawing references from the article written by Caitlin Brassington, a registered nurse,
who had been extremely angered and disheartened at being called just a nurse by one of her
acquaintances, and her reaction had been more than justified (Brassington, 2017). As a registered
nurse practicing in the Australia, there are a multitude of responsibilities to complete. A few of
the roles and responsibilities that a registered nurse include performing physical assessment and
taking health history, providing promotional and educational help experience along with
counseling, medication administration and management and other patient-centered interventions,
interpretation of patient information and critical decision making, coordination and collaboration
of care within multidisciplinary healthcare team, directing and supervising care, and lastly

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conducting overall research to incorporate evidence based best practice (Marañón & Pera, 2015).
However, there is very little knowledge in the mass regarding the responsibilities that a
registered nurse has or the daily health care related activities that a RN partakes in. this extreme
lack of knowledge and normal respect is reflected in the response ‘you are Just a Nurse’ of the
acquaintance to Caitlin.
However, it had to be understood within this context that this lack of knowledge is a
direct result of the conspicuous lack of a respectful professional identity for the nurses in the
society bringing us to the other contributing factor mentioned above. While the blame for this
consequence like a professional identity in the nursing profession can be bestowed upon the
faulty designation structure and stereotyping within the healthcare industry and lack of
recognizing the nothing works as an integral part of healthcare industry as of now, there is a
basic lack of self respect and professional identity within the nursing professionals as well
(Hood, et al., 2014). There are a lot of nursing individuals who fail to recognize and respect the
contribution of their own profession due to either extreme work pressure and stress or
unsatisfactory pay, their lack of respect was there on profession is reflected in the standing the
society has given to the nursing profession. Therefore nursing has been and continues to suffer in
extreme lack of understanding in the general public, and these stereotypes feeds on the lack of
respectful professional identity for the nurses. Therefore there is need for the nursing
professionals to understand the contribution they are making for the society, and the
indispensable role they play in the Healthcare industry restoring the health and wellbeing the
entire society (Willetts & Clarke, 2014).
The term professional identity can be defined as an individual on perception on the
attributes believes values motives and professional experiences in the context of the job roles and

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responsibilities that the individual has to partake in. In the blog by Caitlin Brassington, she has
described bits and pieces of daily responsibilities as a registered nurse and has provided a
beautiful contrast between the belittlement she received from her acquaintance and the
magnitude of contribution as a nurse to the society by her (Sims, 2011). She has explained in this
article how she had helped mothers deliver babies into the world, how to restore the dignity of
the patients, counseled grieving patients after losing a child, perform CPR bringing patients back
alive from the very brink of death, educated patients and junior nurses, etc. She had also
mentioned how she has sacrificed holidays, memorable days of her children, in order to fulfill
her responsibilities as a registered nurse. Like a true professional Caitlin has successfully
showcased all the professional attributes, delete values and opinions she has about her profession
and has contradicted the belittlement acquaintance provided her calling her just a nurse. She has
expressed grief at being called just a nurse, in spite of the fact that she contributed and sacrificed
so much for her profession and in order to fulfill her job responsibilities. Hence it can be
concluded that Caitlin but successfully demonstrate a respectful and morally adequate
professional identity as a registered nurse in her blog.
In my own opinion the block written by Caitlin Brassington had been an eye opener for
all the nursing professionals sacrificing a lot in order to contribute to the society and fulfill the
job responsibilities of a nurse. Kids in very beautifully outlined the responsibilities of a
registered nurse however she missed out on a lot of details that a registered nurse has to go
through on a daily basis. However her I think has been expressive along with been crucially
truthful reflecting her pride at being a part of the nursing workforce. And I would like to follow
her footsteps to develop selfless professionalism and compassionate kindness for my patience, all
the while being extremely proud of my profession. Caitlin provides a glorious example of how a

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nursing profession and should be, and hence writing received a significant response in the social
media. There are challenges in following her ideologies, face the extreme work pressure, stress,
and lack of recognition (Vaismoradi, Salsali, & Ahmadi, 2011). However with a little support
and willful effort it is not impossible to achieve, and as social media provides a great platform
for connecting with other nursing professionals and gaining along with providing support, the
standard set by Caitlin can be achieved easily.

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Bibliography
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Brassington, C. (2017, september 11). 'Am I just a nurse?'. Retrieved from ABC News:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-11/just-a-nurse-queensland-woman-writes-open-
letter/7919422
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7PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY OF A REGISTERED NURSE
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