CNA149: Professionalism in Nursing - Characteristics & Behavior

This essay provides an overview of professionalism in nursing, focusing on the characteristics and behaviors that define a professional nurse. It emphasizes the importance of empathy and strong communication skills in building therapeutic relationships with patients, leading to improved health outcomes. The essay further discusses the significance of tolerance, respect, accountability, and responsibility in nursing practice, highlighting how these behaviors contribute to patient safety and effective teamwork. It concludes that these characteristics and behaviors are essential for successful patient interaction and enhanced job satisfaction. Desklib provides a platform to explore more such assignments.

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Professionalism
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Introduction
Based on my understanding as a nursing student, professionalism is the act of adhering to
all the roles and setting practices according to the ARNNL Standards of Practice.
Professionalism comprises of values, attitudes, behaviors, as well as qualities that demonstrate I
am accountable, ethical, visible, and knowledgeable. The rapid changes in health services have
got an indirect effect on the nursing profession. Specifically, in recent years, there has been an
increase in quality studies hence necessitating institutions to engage nurses who understand their
roles and responsibilities, think ethically, and are sensitive to the profession’s ethical values,
behave autonomously, and respect people. The study explores some of the characteristics of a
professional nurse and their professional behavior.
Characteristics of a Professional Nurse
Empathy is the first characteristic that a professional nurse should exhibit. In caring
work, empathy is very significant because the focus of nursing care is the interpersonal
interaction between a patient and a nurse. Empathy is considered to affect a patient’s emotions.
For instance, it brings heightened self-esteem (Akhtar-Danesh, et al., 2013, pp.251). Also, an
empathetic encounter with a patient is the building block of a therapeutic alliance, which is
important for a successful psychotherapeutic treatment. A good empathetic capacity among
nurses has been associated with improved well-being and satisfaction, decrease in complications
and errors, enhanced patient compliance, including better health outcomes. As a professional
nurse, my encounter with patients can either be interpreted as being characterized either by
mutuality or unilaterality, purportedly resulting in a feeling of confirmation or disconfirmation

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with each other (Raab, 2014, pp.101). A patient and nurse’s identity is strengthened by a high-
quality encounter by mutual confirmation.
Possessing solid communication skills is the other characteristic that a professional nurse
should exhibit. Communication skills are basic foundations of all careers. However, among
nurses, communication is an essential aspect of the job. A professional nurse should be in a
position to communicate with co-workers, patients, and doctors in a very fast-paced environment
(Bunkenborg, Samuelson, Åkeson & Poulsen, 2013, pp.1469). In addition, they should be able to
listen attentively to doctor’s orders, and if need be, take perfect notes. Effective interpersonal, as
well as communication skills between a patient and a health care provider, are among the key
factors for enhancing a patient’s satisfaction, compliance, including the overall health outcome
(O'hagan, et al., 2014, pp.1347). Hence, if I am able to communicate clearly and expresses
kindness in my conversation with the patients, it is likely that they would respond positively to
the health care service.
Professional Behavior of a Nurse
Tolerance and respect are interrelated concepts that are appropriate to a nurse. A nurse
should accept all patients regardless of their age, ethnicity, personal beliefs, religious beliefs,
gender, political beliefs, race, and appearance. Tolerance mandates that the nurses care for all
patients with compassion. On the other hand, respect helps a nurse accept that all patients
deserve compassion and care, irrespective of their values or beliefs. Disrespect threatens a
patient’s safety since it hinders collegiality along with cooperation which is important for
teamwork, undermines morale, hinders adherence to and implementation of new practices, and
cuts off communication (Pitt, Powis, Jones & Hunter, 2014, pp.868). As a nurse, failure to

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respect my clients impairs communication, thus threatening the patient safety because disrespect
creates a barrier to open dialogue and feedback.
Accountability and responsibility are the last behaviors that are appropriate for a nursing
career. The two behaviors denote the obligation to a specific standard of care owed to a patient
including the integrity to be answerable for the actions and decisions made. Upholding the
principle of accountability and responsibility, a nurse can admit taking particular actions due to
their clinical judgment that is based on evidence and standards of practice (Bachman, 2013,
pp.754). Based on this analysis, in the instance that my actions or decisions are not desirable or
therapeutic, portraying good professional behavior, I would admit the responsibility to make sure
that measures to rectify or prevent reoccurrence of such incidences are initiated.
Conclusion
The characteristics and professional behavior of nursing personnel are considered
essential for the interaction with the patients and it also improves work satisfaction. The aim of
the study was to explore the characteristics that a professional nurse should exhibit and the
professional behavior appropriate for the role. Some of the characteristics of a professional nurse
include possessing solid communication skills and empathy. Nonetheless, behaviors appropriate
for a nursing role include tolerance and respect along with accountability and responsibility.

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Bibliography
Akhtar-Danesh, N., Baumann, A., Kolotylo, C., Lawlor, Y., Tompkins, C., & Lee, R. (2013).
Perceptions of professionalism among nursing faculty and nursing students. Western journal of
nursing research, 35(2), 248-271.
Bachman, L. R. (2013). New Professionalism: the post-industrial context. Building Research &
Information, 41(6), 752-760.
Bunkenborg, G., Samuelson, K., Åkeson, J., & Poulsen, I. (2013). Impact of professionalism in
nursing on in‐hospital bedside monitoring practice. Journal of advanced nursing, 69(7), 1466-
1477.
O'hagan, S., Manias, E., Elder, C., Pill, J., Woodward‐Kron, R., McNamara, T. ... & McColl, G.
(2014). What counts as effective communication in nursing? Evidence from nurse educators' and
clinicians' feedback on nurse interactions with simulated patients. Journal of advanced
nursing, 70(6), 1344-1355.
Pitt, V., Powis, D., Levett-Jones, T., & Hunter, S. (2014). The influence of personal qualities on
performance and progression in a pre-registration nursing programme. Nurse education
today, 34(5), 866-871.
Raab, K. (2014). Mindfulness, self-compassion, and empathy among health care professionals: a
review of the literature. Journal of health care chaplaincy, 20(3), 95-108.