Essay on Nursing Professionalism: Values, Components, and Ethics

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of nursing professionalism, emphasizing its core values, components, and ethical considerations. It begins by defining professionalism and its importance in the nursing field, highlighting the need for educational preparedness and commitment to patient care. The essay then delves into the core values of nursing, including belief in human dignity, honesty, the pursuit of knowledge, and responsibility, explaining their significance in practice. It also examines the components of the nursing profession, such as appearance, willingness to help others, and attitude. The conclusion reiterates the challenges and rewards of the nursing profession, emphasizing the importance of nurses providing the best services for the benefit of others. The essay incorporates several references to support its arguments.

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NURSING PROFESSIONALISM
By (Name)
The Name of the Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the School (University)
The City and State where it is located
The Date

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Introduction
A person who tries to be a professional in any field should be characterized by compliance with
the ethical or technical profession of his/her profession. True nursing professionalism means that
someone should be competent in his/her roles in their pursuit of excellence. Professional nurses
should always possess educational preparedness since they have a lot of responsibilities that they
are expected to carry out. The complexities associated with health care and the fast expansion in
clinical knowledge are the factors that make it essential for nurses to possess educational
preparedness before embarking on a nursing career. The nursing profession means that someone
is committed to nurturing and caring of both ill and healthy individuals, at a community, group
or individual level. Before embarking on a nursing career, one should possess the nursing core
values that include belief in human dignity, honesty, the pursuit of knowledge and responsibility.
Also, nurses should fulfill the society expectations of their practice, some components of the
nursing profession include; appearance, willing to help others and attitude.
Core values of the nursing profession
Belief in human dignity
Human dignity is one of the most crucial professional value that a nurse should hold as part of
the ethical issue in the field of nursing. Belief in human dignity is a fundamental,
multidimensional, vague and complex concept that is necessary for the nursing profession.
Holding the value of human dignity enables the nurse to respect every human being and treat
each person as a unique human being. Human dignity is recognized in the workplace using
aspects such as self-control, self-confidence, privacy, environment control and respect (Moyo et
al, 2016).

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Honesty
Being honest is vital in all professionals, but it is more important specifically in the nursing
profession. Before embarking on a nursing career, one should ensure that he/she knows how to
practices the value of being honest. In nursing one is required to deal with patients who are in
difficult situations, relate closely with nurses and handle very sensitive materials and in carrying
out these tasks honest is important (Tanaka et al, 2016).
Pursuit of knowledge
Nursing as a profession requires one to portray knowledge of a lot of skills while treating,
assessing or preventing illness in the hospital setting. Some tasks that nurses carry out like
management and prevention of ailments, injury and illness require all the nurses to have
adequate specialized training, skills and knowledge in order to perform the tasks effectively
(Carvalho and Santiago, 2016).
Responsibility
Professional responsibility according to nursing refers to the moral and ethical requirements
permeating the nursing profession. These standards rely on working with other medical
professionals in a collaborative way, morals, integrity, patient care and responsibility to bring
about social change. It is also the responsibility of a nurse to possess accountability, holistic care
and prudence while delivering the services (Keyko et al, 2016).
Components of the nursing profession
Appearance

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People tend to judge others depending on their appearance. As a nurse, a groomed look, neat
hair, clean scrubs and clean shoes demonstrate the fact that you care about yourself and hence
you have the capability to care about other people. Nurses who look sloppy maybe judged by
others as lazy, uncaring and unorganized.
Willing to help others
Nursing as a profession requires one to be willing to help the people who need their services and
also be willing to help other nurses. The willingness to help others enables people to work as a
team hence effective services and speak positively about the nursing profession (Slatyer et al,
2016).
Attitude
As a nurse, one should possess a positive or desirable attitude in our workplace. The focus of a
nurse should be centered around helping other people rather than focusing on personal issues
(Somers et al, 2018. At the work area, one should not take personal issues as a nurse; it is
desirable to leave our personal issues at home. Even if at times nurses face a lot of privacy issues
that can threaten their positive outlook, one should try to control them and have a positive
attitude when helping others (Jang, 2016).
Conclusion
The nursing profession is a tough profession, and hence one is required to be mentally and
physically ready before embarking on the nursing career. This is due to health care reforms and
changes in the economy. Nurses ought to be the most trusted profession across the world; hence

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we to give our best services by putting the best foot forward not only to benefit ourselves but
also to benefit others.
References
Carvalho, T. and Santiago, R., 2016. Professionalism and knowledge. The Routledge companion
to the professions and professionalism. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp.144-157.
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), pp.749-761.
Keyko, K., Cummings, G.G., Yonge, O. and Wong, C.A., 2016. Work engagement in
professional nursing practice: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 61,
pp.142-164.
Moyo, M., Goodyear-Smith, F.A., Weller, J., Robb, G. and Shulruf, B., 2016. Healthcare
practitioners’ personal and professional values. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21(2),
pp.257-286.
Slatyer, S., Coventry, L.L., Twigg, D. and Davis, S., 2016. Professional practice models for
nursing: A review of the literature and synthesis of key components. Journal of nursing
management, 24(2), pp.139-150.
Somers, M.J., Birnbaum, D., Finch, L. and Casal, J., 2018. Psychological attachment to nursing
in the early career: occupational commitment profiles, motivational patterns, retention, and
performance. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, pp.1-18.

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Tanaka, M., Taketomi, K., Yonemitsu, Y. and Kawamoto, R., 2016. Professional behaviours and
factors contributing to nursing professionalism among nurse managers. Journal of nursing
management, 24(1), pp.12-20.