What is a professional nurse?

EmeraldNYL, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2003

Excellent post, Ainz. In order to be viewed as professionals, we must conduct ourselves in a professional manner. Recently two nurses on my unit were fired for getting into a physical fight at work. This certainly does not portray a professional image!!

indie · Oct 10, 2003

Ainz et al:

Interesting, thoughtful postings. Thanks. I like to see what newer RN professionals are thinking now. (I'm getting old and trying really hard to retire, but allnures seems to have given me a new lease on what's left of my RN career. Thank you.)

My take on the subject is that some of us are our own worst enemies. You have only to look around parts of this very large bulletin board to see the inappropriate, the negative, the whining without a solution mind set of many in our profession.

Unfortunately much of what is written will be seen by non RN managers et al (who as 3rd shift guy states, simply do not know what we do and could do given better circumstances in which to do it).

Most who view us, do not post. What are they thinking about our profession?

melbnurse · Oct 11, 2003

I believe that a Nurse , be they AIN, Div2 , or Div 1, ( ozzie terms ) are nurses in their heart ! You either ARE or ARE NOT you will know !

and so will the patients

cwazycwissyRN, RN · Oct 13, 2003

Thought provoking thread, as usual ainz. Thanks

Pretzlgl · Oct 15, 2003

Originally posted by ainz
All true statements.

Our plight, if you will, is a result of corporations exploiting employees for higher profits all the while ignoring the real product--which is healthcare. They don't ncessarily ignore it but try to keep the expense of production to a minimum by producing the absolute minimum level of quality that the conumers will tolerate. That is just logical, not right, but logical.

...professional nurses, just 1 or 2 year educated people to perform "tasks" and leave the real thinking about patient care to the real professionals. To think otherwise means you have your head in the sand!!

Thus ends my "epistle" for the day.

Ainz - I do appreciate all you have to say on this matter. I agree wholeheartedly with many of your points. Particularly that nurses should act professionally - I see MANY who don't.

That said, I do not agree that the BSN as min. level education for a nurse is a real solution. You said it yourself - "....they try to keep the expense of production to a minimum, etc" and then you say it is "just logical, not right, but logical". The bean counters are going to continue doing what is logical to them - keeping expenses low. And one way to do that is to hire cheaper labor. Many hospitals pay more for BSN prepared nurses. If hospitals truly were interested in all BSN staff, many would have been lobbying for this for years.

One more thing - when you said "just 1 or 2 year educated people to perform tasks, and leave the real thinking about patient care to real professionals"... - that is a little elitist in thinking and is offensive to me as a 2 year educated nurse.

old rural nurse, RN · Oct 15, 2003

Excuse my plagiarism, don't remember where I found this. The difference between professionals and experts: professionals deal with knowledge, skills, attitude and values. Experts deal only with knowledge and skills.

As an ADN with 22 years experience, I can tell you that having a higher degree does not neccessarily mean you are a better nurse, nor more professional. I have worked with BSNs who didn't have the common sense to come in out of the rain, and with diploma nurses whom I greatly admire. This subject of making all nursing programs four years has been around since before I went to school, and I don't think it will ever happen (nor that it should). I live and work in a rural area where there isn't a four year program within 150 miles. Though there are several ADN to BSN distance courses available. Rural areas would be hard pressed to find or recruit staff with BSNs, and many prospective nursing students would go into another field, rather than relocate to a university. worsenng the nursing shortage. Often nurses who do go on to BSNs leave the area or at least find other employment rather than bedside nursing. There isn't much to attract them to hospital nursing or LTC. We find we have to "grow our own" staff, as trying to recruit from urban areas doesn't work.

Anyway, back to the professionalism issue. I see many new nurses coming out of school with very little maturity, professionalism or communication skills, don't they teach that anymore? Sadly, I feel many of our young people have poor work ethics, not just in nursing, wanting all the benefits but little job responsibility. I guess times are a changin. OK, off my soap box now. I do feel professionalism is a lot about respect, for your patients, coworkers, supervisors etc, though society doesn't place much value in respect, we're all in it for "us", and what we can get out of it.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 15, 2003

well said rural nurse. Having been a rural nurse in OK, I can agree 100% with you said. Well-done.