Are nurses professionals ?

[lauralassie]

O.K. our nursing license in Ohio says, "The profession of Nursing". :mortarboard: However, I am looking for a new job and several places list nursing in their own catagory, not under professional. Social workers, IS people are under professional catagory. I don't get it, Then, to top it off. I said something to my husband of 26 years about it and he said. " No, nurses arn't professionals, professionals are people like administators" etc... I love my husband dearly, but that's kind of like ...does my butt look big in these pants type question. BZZZZT ....Wrong answer ! Any way,,,back to the subject. Just from some attitudes from admin at work, I feel hospitals are looking at the staff nurse as any other worker. I work for a magnet hsopital in Columbus, they boast all kinds of things in newspapers, radio and TV, but when it comes to education, nurse satisfaction, imporvement of skills etc,,(such as requiring CCRN, CEN etc..), they say comments like , "it's not in our budget". :barf01:Are we as nurses loosing ground?

[kstaffeil]

You are not on a limb. If nurses were treated as professionals and held to professional standards those who are not professional wouldn't cut it!

P.S. I have a daughter and gandson in Ireland.

[kstaffeil]

Don't know how I'm going to deal with this. In all my work I have been professional. I didn't go to school to be treated like a CNA. (No jab on CNA's, I was one and we couldn't do without them. I'm talking about Hospital management and administration.

[kstaffeil]

Magnet status is no m ore than Hospital PR

[bethin]

Not a nurse, but I think professionalism is relative.

If you are respectful to others (no matter your job), helpful, do a great job, want to learn more in your current job, etc then you are a professional.

So, as an aide I consider myself a professional. :chair:

[leslie :-D]

some consider it a profession.

some consider it blue-collar.

i don't have a problem with either perception.

i am defined by my actions and behaviors- not what others think of me.

leslie

[ginger58, ASN, RN]

Definitely nursing is a profession, but not all act professionally.

[NursingAgainstdaOdds]

I hereby recommend, probably for the 50th time on these boards, "Nursing Against the Odds" to the OP.

That aside, nursing is absolutely a profession.

[James Huffman]

From the Australian Council of Professions:

"A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to high ethical standards and uphold themselves to, and are accepted by, the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognized, organized body of learning derived from education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge and these skills in the interest of others. Inherent in this definition is the concept that the responsibility for the welfare, health and safety of the community shall take precedence over other considerations."

Certainly a good start for a definition; do we live up to that?

I've usually found that when nurses speak of behavior or a nurse as "unprofessional," they mean "unladylike." As in, "She lost her temper -- that's unprofessional." The things usually designated as unprofessional by nurses may be bad form or crass, but they're not usually "unprofessional."

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Funny question, because LPNs are told that we are not considered to be under the umbrella of 'professional nurses' because we do not possess a degree; we are told it is a vocation for us.

Outside of that little blurb, I see that Registered Nursing is aiming towards being considered as a profession. They are advocating strongly for nurses to enter into the field with a BSN.