Professional Conduct in Nursing - Personal Statement Example

? Professional conduct Introduction Nursing is footed on the moral value of commitment to endorsing happiness by experienced and compassionate care. Professional conduct refers to the way in which an individual portrays his/her actions in a professional capacity. The general expectation for professionals is that they are expected to go through their roles with exemplary standards of conduct. This simply means that the standards should not be similar to those of ordinary people or less concerned individuals. In order to achieve the required standards of a professional nurse, it is compulsory for an individual to go through a very special educational program. This program is a study for people who are obliged to learning and are ready to accept the moral standards of behavior of the profession. While students are undergoing their education program, they endeavor to learn to support and restore health, prevent sicknesses and to also relief pain (Small man, 2004). Objectives The key issues to be highlighted in this discussion are going to be those concerning the aspect of professionalism in hospital settings. Professionalism will entail several issues like the way the nurses communicate with the patients, the way the nurses respect the patients in terms of their values, culture and religion, and the way the nurses conduct themselves. Literature Review According to nursing literature, professionalism is regarded as a very important aspect in any nursing profession (Niekerk & Younge, 2004). This is because it is professionalism that guides the way the nurses conduct themselves while they are serving their patients (Watson & Tilley, 2004). Patients value much the services of professional nurses. In addition, the same patients have a lot of confidence in the same services (Pyne, 1997). Therefore chances of them getting healed faster are high if the nurses demonstrate professionalism (Hally, 2008). Professionalism also affects the confidence that patients have on a particular hospital. For a professional action to be executed by the nurses, they have to take into consideration the facets of professionalism illustrated by figure 1 below Professionalism therefore, should be upheld in the best way possible. Discussion After my studies as a nurse a few years ago, I got a job at the New Breasen Hospital where I was to practice my nursing for the first time as a professional nurse. In this particular hospital, I was quite surprised by some of the behaviors portrayed by some of my colleagues who had been in the field for a while. Every day was a day full of new bad surprises because of the way some of the nurses were behaving and treating the patients. Most of my colleagues did not seem to know why they were actually working as nurses. The good professional conduct of a nurse that was there in the hospital was very limited compared to how I expected it to be (Chiarella & Staunto, 2007). According to the nursing profession, respect for values, culture and religion of patients/clients should come first, but I noticed some of them being ignored. The different patients who visited and still visit our hospital had the majority being kind of used to the negative attitude they received from some nurses, the head nurse of our department, which deal with post-natal clinic where new born babies have their growth and health checked continuously as they grow up until they reach a certain age where they are stable. Grace, the head of our department had the tendency of shouting at women who brought their babies for weighing and other procedures (Hally, 2008). There were few other nurses who had similar behavior. When I realized that a few individuals had that problem of misconduct, I was not discouraged because a good number of nurses from different departments were working professionally only that a few people were letting them down, and as much as we were trying our best to give our patients the much needed respectful treatment, it was not working well and was not easy because apart from the nurses conduct, the patients were mostly cold and never free to seek treatment in a much trustful and comfortable manner (Pyne, 1997). The other nurses and I who showed the nursing professionalism had a task to change the reputation of that hospital and earn the clients’ trust. Our other goal was to make everyone within that community happy and proud. We held a few meetings to make corrections of the mistakes on behavior of some of our staff. Every trained nurse knows exactly what is expected of her/him. As we tried to make our colleagues change their attitudes and act as professional nurses they were meant to be, we did our best with my other colleagues to give the services required from professional nurses. This brought about a poor relationship between us and our colleagues. My friends Judy, Chris and Marion and I made so many enemies, some of our colleagues could hardly talk to us because to them, we were betrayers. Eventually, they came back to their senses and some went through disciplinary actions, and there were great changes. Right now all the nurses working in Breasen Hospital are the best. The Hospital is now the talk of the community; way of communication is wonderful as it is done professionally. All clients are treated with dignity and respect with the clients’ details being treated with the highest level of confidentiality (Watson & Tilley, 2004). Today, the clients’ requests are the priority of the hospital. Clients enjoy all the services such as treatment with a lot of care, interactions with nurses who are sober and neat, their information is safe with the nurses, their cultural values and religion is respected, openness and honesty is practiced among other professional performances. Conclusion In conclusion, the nursing profession is a very sensitive job. That is the reason why nurses are given a thorough training that consists of much professional activities (Niekerk & Younge, 2004). It is a job that has an individual dealing with the sick. Sick people need so much care and comfort more than anything. For that reason, whoever is attending to them must be highly professional in order to see into their well- being and comfort so as to provide them with the ability to recover effectively. References Chiarella, M. & Staunto, P. (2007). Nursing and the Law. New York, NY: Elsevier publishers Hally, B. (2008). A Guide for International Nursing Students in Australia and New Zealand. New York, NY: Elsevier publishers Harris, C. & Halper, J. (2011). Nursing Practice in Multiple Sclerosis: A Core Curriculum. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company Niekerk, F. & Younge A. ( 2004). Juta's Manual of Nursing. New York, NY: Juta and Company Ltd Pyne, R. (1997). Professional Discipline in Nursing, Midwifery and Health. New York, NY: Visiting Wiley-Blackwell Small man S. Chapman C. & Burnard, P. (2004). Professional and ethical issues in nursing. NewYork, NY: Smallman publishers Watson, R & Tilley S, (2004). Accountability in nursing and midwifery. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Appendix Figure 1 Read More