Nursing as a Profession in Australia - Case Study Example

Client inserts his/her name Client inserts tutor’s name Subject of Study Date Years ago, nursing in Australia was considered to be one of the lowly recognized professions. This was due to the various attributes which included its low qualification where the highest level of study was the certificate level as compared to other health related professions such medicine and pharmacy. However, the picture of the profession begun changing in the 1970’s with the establishment of colleges which offered diploma training in the country (Huston, 2010). Currently, Australia is well known globally for its quality nursing training offered in her training institutions and the highly qualified nurses. Therefore, this paper analyzes the factors that make nursing qualify to be a profession and the characteristics of any profession at large. The existence of professional ethics is one of the characteristics of a profession. These ethics regulate the behavior of the members of a particular profession. These professional ethics which guide professionals at their practice include, honesty towards the clients, maintenance of confidentiality related to professional matters, practicing in a sound rationale, recognizing the stature of a profession, justice to the clients and avoiding misinterpretation of individual’s qualifications among others. These professional codes of ethics hold its members accountable for their decisions and actions at that specific profession. These codes of ethics are set in accordance to an act of parliament (Chinn& Kramer, 2004.). Professionals’ belonging to a particular profession behaves in an altruistic style towards their clients and their profession. This includes unselfish behavior towards their clients and their profession, devoting to practice in the interests of others, respecting the profession and the clients, and working with a positive attitude towards different clients in need. These include individuals such as the co-workers, children and the populations at risk among others. These professionals display a positive image towards the general public safeguarding the reputation of that profession. Additionally, professionals provide their services to those in need irrespective of their backgrounds such as color, race or nationality hence, maintaining the standards of a profession (Hood, 2010). Professions are established with the core aim of providing different services to the society and individuals in need of these services. Therefore, a profession is specifically concerned with an area of identified core function or needs. The functioning of a profession is controlled by set principles and disciplines which aid in the building knowledge in which its professionals functions. A profession should have sets of standards upon which its members must qualify for them to be admitted and accepted to practice in a particular profession and to function in accordance with their set principles (Finkleman & kenner, 2013). A profession is made up of well-organized professional associations which functions within a particular scope of function. These associations are important as they promote professional accountability, autonomy and the general supervision of the normal functioning of its members. The members of these professional associations are responsible for decision making on the effective ways of providing their services to their clients. These decisions are made basing on scientifically proven knowledge and principles hence, safe guarding the safety of its clients. The members in an association function independently within their specified scope and within the limits of their profession’s rules and regulations (Chinn& Kramer, 2004.). . People function with a relative range of freedom within a profession. This occurs without subjection to direct supervision. Lack of direct supervision encourages autonomy, motivation and a great degree of responsibility from the professionals in the provision of their services. The members of a profession have an authority to practice in different fields of specializations to deliver their services as long as they belong to that organization. The members have a strong motivation towards quality service provision to their clients and a lifetime commitment towards competence in their practice (Ornstein et al. 2010) . Profession is established to provide its services to the public in the public interests, providing its services in return of limited payments and the overall goal of improvement of the services it offers to them. A profession functioning is under degree of client obligation which is established through a virtue of specialized professional knowledge. It renders its services to the public and responds to their problems in a planned intellectual manner rather than through a manual or a physical labor plane. The members in a profession are given an absolute, complete freedom to exercise their powers within a profession leading to psychological and personal satisfaction as a result of autonomy gained through the freedom to practice (Finkleman & kenner, 2013). . A profession provides their professionals with in service programs so as to foster their technical knowledge and skills to practice. This is achieved through the provision of seminars, conferences, lectures and workshops so that its members can update their professional skills. In addition, providing these services promotes innovation which maintains the standards of a profession. The entry into a profession should be strictly regulated by a standard of training, certification, licensing and selection. The professionals should be provided with a particular period of internship as a form of apprenticiation hence gaining the adequate experience required to practice in a profession (Hood, 2010). . One of the reasons as to why nursing is considered as a profession is the existence of unique body of values and knowledge which guides the professional nurses in their practice. These knowledge and skills are obtained through various methods such as through training, from theories and from practicing in the real life situations. An example of the existence of professional knowledge and skills is the establishment of various nursing institutions which offer training to nurses at various levels hence, one method of ensuring that its professionals acquire the necessary knowledge required for practicing (Freidson 1988). Nursing as a profession has a wide range of autonomy. This is evidenced by the nature in which nurses have freedom in their practice in decision making. Autonomy is also evidenced by the ability of the nurses to practice their nursing care in accordance with their professional body of knowledge. Furthermore, the nurses have a wider degree of autonomy in enhancing affiliate relationships with their clients, providing their health care, collegial interdependence and their active responsibility in advocating for their patients’ rights. Autonomy leads to professional accountability, empowerment, commitment, professionalization and job satisfaction. Autonomy has been by employing different methods such as coming up with programs which provide amble environment for learning (Ornstein et al. 2010) Furthermore, nursing profession has its own disciplinary body which is responsible for handling disciplinary cases. It holds all the professional nurses accountable for professional malpractices such as violation of patients’ rights and professional negligence. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association, which is responsible for disciplining nurses and the mid wives for any cases of professional misconduct is an example of a disciplinary body which holds nurses accountable for their acts. As a profession, nursing mainly focuses on providing care to the society hence, making it a profession (Brown 2006). In addition, for one to be a professional nurse, he/she must undergo training for a particular duration of time. This is important since it equips the nurses with the necessary skills and knowledge necessary for their service provision to their clients and the general public. However, the training varies depending on the levels of study. An example is the certificate nursing training which varies in the duration of training from the diploma or the bachelors training. Furthermore, it is a profession since its members acquire in service training through the provision of services such as seminars, conferences and internal audits to upgrade the existing knowledge and skills (Huston, 2010). Nursing as a profession has its own professional code of ethics which regulates the functioning of the nurses at their practice. These codes of ethics include justice to all, confidentiality, observing patient’s rights, informed consent, value of human life, quality service provision and accurate documentation of patient’s outcomes and actions among other code of ethics. These codes of ethics enables the nurses defend their dignity of quality service provision to those under their care and promotion of the nurses’ and patients’ autonomy. Additionally, the code of ethics assists the nurses in the process of decision making, expressing professionalism and a method of professional identity for the nurses (Chinn& Kramer, 2004.). Nursing has its own areas of specialties’ which its professionals can major in. These specialties have different scopes of standards and practice and include cardiac, pediatric, emergency, and forensic and oncology nursing among other various nursing specialties. In addition to the nursing specialties, nursing has its own filed of research. This is important since it acts a source of evidence which is used to support nursing practice. These include conducting researches based on the hospital setting and the universities among other research institutions (Hood, 2010). Nursing require patience, skills and knowledge required by this profession makes it qualify to be a profession. These include great patience in their training process, licensing and also behaving in a respectable manner to the patients irrespective of the moods the nurse is in. the services provided by the nurses makes it qualify to be a profession. These ranges from the patients care to the provision of community services to their clients. Nurses also provide psychological and spiritual care to those in need including those with critical illnesses and those families and individuals affected (Finkleman & kenner, 2013). The caring aspect by the nursing professionals makes it qualify to be a profession. Nurses are involved in the provision of care to those in need including the vulnerable groups at risk. The care provided is done basing on the scientifically proven knowledge such as applying various nursing models such as the Florence Nightingale model of providing care. Furthermore, nursing is a profession since it is vocation since its professionals are paid for their services provided to the general public. At their practice of their duties, nurses rival their counter parts such as doctors and the pharmacists working alongside in the provision of health care hence, a profession (Brown 2006). Nursing entails the development of different leadership skills which are needed for the success in the provision of nursing care and their related services. These skills will help the professionals participate in the effective provision of individual, family and community care. Furthermore, it equips them with the necessary skills required to assess factors required for successful personal, professional and community leadership. The skills gained allow nursing professionals participate in nursing education related projects with their clients through secondary patients’ organizations (Freegard 2007). Nursing is a profession since it criticizes the role and the responsibilities of the professional nurses at their practice. This is done through the administration of performance appraisals and regular evaluation of its staffs’ performance. Criticism focuses on evaluating nurses’ ethical and professional behavior, the role of technology in their process of care provision, appreciating the importance of applying assessment data to improve the quality of service provision to its clients and analyzing the role families and communities play in contributing to patient care (Ornstein et al. 2010). Nursing involves the demonstration of the knowledge of human growth and development and the evaluation of its impact on the individuals’ health. This includes evaluating factors related to social, physical, intellectual and emotional development of individuals and their effect on their health. Furthermore, it evaluates the effect of various coping styles and diversity of their learning capabilities in the healing process. Nursing as a profession has its own regulatory body which oversees the functioning of nurses in the state and the promotion of their welfare issues (Freidson 1988). In conclusion, nursing is a profession which is recognized globally for its dedication to provision for healthcare to individuals, families and communities at risk. Nursing has set standards which regulates its professionals in their practice and promotion of professional accountability. Therefore, nurses should play their role in promoting the positive picture of their profession through maintaining their ethics and professional standards. However, continued education should be provided for the nurses to equip them with the necessary skills required for their practice. Nurses should be considered equal to be their counter parts in the hospital such as the doctors and the pharmacists to avoid cases of discrimination at the work places. References Andre, K., & Heartfield, M. (2007). Nursing and midwifery portfolios: Evidence of continuing competence (2nd ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Churchill Livingston. Brown E. (2006). Nursing as a Profession. New York: Sage Foundation. Chinn, P.L., & Kramer, M.K. (2004). Integrated knowledge development in Nursing (6th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby. Freidson E. (1988), Profession of Medicine: A Study of Applied Knowledge. London: Chicago University Press. Freegard H. (2007). Ethical Practice Health Proffessionals. Melbourne: Nelson Australia Printing Ltd. Finkleman A & Kenner C. (2013). Professional Nursing Concepts: Competencies for Quality Leadership. Burlington: Jones & Barlett Learning. Huston, C. (2010). Professional Issues in Nursing: Challenges and opportunities. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams &Wilkins. Hood, L (2010). Leddy & Pepper’s conceptual bases of professional nursing (7th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Ornstein A, Levine D. & Guter G. (2010). Foundations of Education. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Read More