What is a professional nurse?

[ainz]

What defines a professional nurse?

[ainz]

Wow. Flamed again, and labeled a bore.

Oh well, I believe what I believe, do what I do, just like you guys. Guess if we were all the same the world truly would be boring. Have a great day !! :)

[SmilingBluEyes]

ahh but what IS YOUR DEFINITION, ainz???

I, for one, am interested!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I'm interested in what ainz says too.

I think that's why the nursing diagnosis people came up with nurses niagnosis, to be recognized as a "profession". I think "Professional Nurse" is more of university type of thing. A "profession" is described as one with a degree, with standards, etc. etc. etc........nursing did not fall into this category. Many feel that for nursing "to get anywhere" there must be recognizable and agreed up standards for the "profession".

Some of us feel we are "professionals" no matter what our degree says, no matter what we do. I used to be a very professional Pizza Hut worker when I was in nursing school. Don't need some administrator or PHD of Nursing to tell me, because I'm not degreed or that because I'm paid by the hour I'm not part of a profession. But that gets into semantics. I can't be bothered.

Obviously though a professional nurse isn't one who whines, complains, etc.

[ainz]

OK.

My definition of professional nurse is one that has the skill, expertise, and education to provide the care with enough competence and quality to achieve the desired outcome. Sounds lke a typical bullsh_ _ answer. In other words, somene that provides good patient care and has good interpersonal skills.

However, in the context of dealing with issues that face nursing today and more importantly, resolving them, the perceptions of others that influence nursing's working conditions then becomes very important.

Just too many things about nursing that contributes too, and perpetuates the notion that a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, just a warm body with a license to fill a shift, and the less educated, the less they have to paid.

To get out of the mess we are in now we need to take on more of the characteristics of a "pofessional" in nursing in general. Especially in the general culture of healthcare. If we are going to sit at the table and really be a part of decision-making, we need to have the credentials to be taken seriously. And I don't mean the token "focus groups" or the usual administrative crap that goes with "empowering" the staff. Now that is a load of crap.

After sitting in many meetings "behind closed doors" and listening to what the corporate, administrtaive people and doctors say about nursing and the ideas that are generated from the focus groups and other wonderful empowering techniques that are contrived, we are ridiculed, laughed at, and manipulated.

If you want to know how we are really viewed, follow the money trail--it does not lead to nursing.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

ainz, thanks for your response. It is excellent.

I'm sickened to think what is being said about nurses behind closed doors by our administration. Let them work the floor and do what I do for 12 hours and then we'll see who whining and complaining.

[SmilingBluEyes]

OK, so getting everyone on the BSN track is an answer?

Simply teaching nurses the language of management is the answer?

Really, what is???

I don't see it that simply.

The MAIN REASON the money trail does not lead TO nursing, rather AWAY from it, is simple enough. The hospitals SEE US as an EXPENSE/LIABILITY ---not an ASSET --- the simple accounting classes I took in college are all I need to get this concept. I just don't see how changing minimum educational preparation would change this. I am not even sure teaching us how to talk is.......until the attitude that our existence as a corporate expense that gets in the way of the bottom line for the bean counters changes---- I don 't see much progress happening. This would have to change also.

Our sheer numbers both help and hurt us from what I can see. The hospitals don't lay out as much cash in the other dept's in the way of salaries/pay. There are not as many PT's, RT's, phelb's, etc as there are nurses. IF they could get away with having NON-licensed personnel they could pull off the street and train in 6 months, do what we do (and boy are they trying) they WOULD in less then a NY minute. YOU and I both know this.

Do you think having everyone w/a professional degree in nursing would change this mindset or really improve our lot in this light? I just do not.

Now, I am not against all of us having BSN's----I am all for it---but it is NOT feasible now. What to do with LPN's? What to do with the 60% of us who are RN's who hold ADN's now? It just would be a massive undertaking and I wonder who would bear these costs?

I SO AGREE WITH YOU ON ONE POINT: Somehow, we nurses have to find a united voice BUT--- leave the minimal educational argument out of it. I agree with you...we need to learn a new language---to unite us and to give us a voice with the bean-counters who control things. But I don't know exactly what that is.......I admit readily.

Anyhow, what do you recommend? You have a unique capability to see both sides, being an RN and administrator. I truly respect that. Do you have answers that are realistic and doable? I for one, would love to learn from you, but I also would like to get past the usual solutions I hear about us simply uniting and being "one". HOW DO WE DO THAT?

[ceecel.dee, MSN, RN]

Originally posted by ainz

OK.

To get out of the mess we are in now we need to take on more of the characteristics of a "pofessional" in nursing in general.

If we are going to sit at the table and really be a part of decision-making, we need to have the credentials to be taken seriously.

These statements ring true. Well said ainz.

[SmilingBluEyes]

even w/credentials, we WILL get in the way of the "bottom line"....

and if they have their way, we will be like so many educated people are finding themselves now...

OVERQUALIFIED and therefore possibly UNEMPLOYED...

(trying to get unlicensed or cheaper labor from somewhere, it's already happening)---

no knock against education but I think that solution is way too simplistic....

like I said our numbers will help AND hurt us .....we need more arrows in our quivers, guys.

[katscan]

We are Not assets to the hospital. At least not in the way some of the other staff is. We don't have a voice, we can't make rules, we can't even govern our own profession in that other personell have taken on some of our responsibilities without challenge. Yet WE are still responsible for their actions if we supervise them and even then, who wants to supervise these people? We are forced to do so by others. They come cheaper. After all, could some of us be trained to do a little bit surgery, or practice a little bit of law?No! Those professions highly regulate who enters them and does not let their major responsibilities go to unlicensed personel. We and a whole lot of others are the income producing workers, the "staff" the "grunts" if you will. We don't even have a voice in our working conditons.Yes it sickens me too what they are saying and I'll bet it is something along the lines of "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse..." Replaceable, maniputable, threatenable, but most of all workable so that their profits are huge, while our paychecks are small.

[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.

Considering all of this, there IS NO ONE SOLUTION FOR NURSING. We have to take a multipronged approach, ONE of which is to settle the issue of how to educationally prepare to become a nurse. Placing this issue in context with all of the other things we need to do and prioritizing them, it is probably not at the top, but it is important because it is a perception issue. Nurses are grounded in reality and for the most part despise all of the B. S. that goes with corporate spin. But if we are in the "game" and we are, we need to learn how to play the "game" effectively or we will continue to be run over.

Learning to "speak the language" is probably toward the top of the list. If we cannot communicate in the language that the people who have power over us know and understand, it is like trying to convince someone who speaks Chinese and does not understand what we are saying and we do not understand them, it simply does not work. Corporate-types are NOT going to give in and try to understand us. WE will have to take the first steps. Unions, staffing ratios, and the like are measures to try and force our views upon administration and they resent it terribly, just like we resent their manipulation. These are short term gains that do have value and show our potential strength. But at the same time, it also shows that we can't do this ourselves, to some degree, and will not produce the long term results we need.

So we need to work on several things SIMULTANEOUSLY. Things like:

Clearly defining what nursing uniquely does

Clearly defining the one minimum ed. standard to enter nursing Learning to speak the language of healthcare finance

Coming across like we are on the "team" and not an adversary

Continuing to raise our educational standards

Nurses pursuing continual furtherance of education

Having a general positive and professional attitude

Behaving like professionals while at work

Uniting ourselves with a nationwide, effective, association

Lobbying the congress, on a national level, for new laws

Changing the way we are paid

Removing ourselves from the hospital payroll

Demnstrating in quantitative data that nursing produces better patient outcomes which produces better financial performance which means the hospital benefits financially

Having our nursing researchers engage in research that is meaningful rather than some of the ridiculous studies you see in the so called "nursing research."

For our society to legally allow anyone to have the real autonomy to make patient care decisions, like doctors for example, we have to demonstrate to society that we are educated and professional enough to have that privilege and responsibility. And no I am not advocating that we start practicing medicine.

In order to gain that trust and privilege legally, we must move away from the perception by others that you can become a licensed nurse in a year or two, that we are simply paid-by-the-hour laborers (like the unions portray us), that we can govern ourselves, that we as a profession cannot agree on what nurses do and how to become one, that we are downtrodden victims with no power. If we continue the way nursing is today, things will not change.

In order to have something different we must do something different.

So, there is no one single thing we need to do, there are many. There is no quick fix. There have been posts in response to some of my thread about this where it is called a "load of pooh", that kind of attitude and thinking will keep nursing as it is today and corporate will continue to chip away and erode nursing until they are successful in demonstrating that they don't need 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.

[katscan]

Wow. I am awestruck. Such wonderful insight and powerful challenges. Thanks Aintz for putting into words my feelings exactly. When you threw out the topic of a professional nurse that has been debated here so much, I thought here we go again.. we'll become defensive and protective of our special corner in the profession. BUT>>> You have explained why we are where we are and why. We all need to read your post and then reread it again. You have painted a realistic picture of the system and it's language as well as suggested possible ways we as a profession can cope and change. You did not only state the problem, but gave possible solutions, and I respect that highly. I agree that we as a profession are on our collective way out if we don't adapt to the reality of today. (And we DO have to have an educational entry point into the profession-EVERYONE else does, unless you are paid hourly. Professionals as they are defined by society do NOT get paid hourly. Now, note I stated "as they are defined by the reality of today's society... Your post is superb..BRAVO!!!!!

[ceecel.dee, MSN, RN]

Originally posted by ainz

Thus ends my "epistle" for the day.

AMEN!

Nothing simple here, that's for sure! ainz is right, though..."they" are not going to try to understand our language...they really have no interest at all, and they don't need too...our lack of a solid front works for them.