Today I was filling out a survey. Under the occupation section I immediately scanned for "professional"
Boy was I startled to see these first 2 options:
•professional (eg doctor, accountant)
•semi-professional (eg nurse, technician)
ummm what?!?! 😡😡😡 so frustrating to not be viewed as a professional when I have a bachelors degree, a speciality certificate, and 7 years experience not to mention a specialised knowledge and skill set for my PROFESSION of nursing!
There in a nutshell is why nursing is or has traditionally seen as a "profession" instead of *Profession*.
When early pioneers like Florence Nightingale and others sought to make nurses professionals it was not so much to compete with physicians (as if that would have been allowed), but to elevate nursing to a respectable career fit for decent women to engage in. This was opposed to the slatterns and others that pretty much provided nursing care outside of professed religious.
Everything about nursing from those early days until really rather recently defined nurses task orientated vocational "occupation" or "professional" if you will. By their training and work at the bedside they mostly confined themselves to what are most often called the "nursing arts". Activities of daily life, administration of medications and treatments, that sort of thing. Early nursing education focused on teaching the proper ways to perform such tasks but not so much on the scientific reasons behind why you did what you were doing.
Everything else about nursing historically focused on nurses being subordinate to physicians. The uniforms/dress codes (including the now dreaded cap), the often vast and bewildering hierarchy within hospitals that controlled literally minute aspect of how a nurse practiced within that facility. If you ever want a good laugh find and read a manual of nursing practice from 1950's or so hospital. Bedside/unit nurses had near nil autonomy on matters ranging from patient care to even what color sweater was permitted. As a staff nurse you valued your life cheaply (not literally of course) if you questioned a medical order. You were told/reminded (often at various levels of severity) that your job was to do what you were instructed. In order to get anywhere and or from killing your patient things had to be phrased in such a way as not to offend and or even then needed a supervisor's intervention to cover your hinnie.
Gradually under a wave of second pioneers changes were began to begin an elevation of nurses to a *Profession*. Introducing theory and rationale, moving nursing education out of hospitals, adding more sciences and other supportive/core courses to nursing education to give nurses a broader base of knowledge to draw from and so forth. The idea was to build the necessary framework that is necessary to support a true profession.
Nursing however suffers (if that is the right word) from the fact it is a profession historically and still dominated by females. True professions have power in the public sphere. Women as a whole have lacked any true *power* until really rather recently. For most of recorded history females were chattel and the unique property of their fathers then later husbands. They had no official voice especially in political matters until given the right to vote. Even afterwards things didn't change very much. Florence Nightingale and others managed to transform nurses into a respectable and even admired profession, but it didn't change many attitudes about women in general. When it came to nursing and in particular hospitals/facilities things were the same as in any other place populated with women; you needed a strict system to keep the girls in line. Females are frail and delicate creatures incapable of possessing the mental capacity of men. Women cannot "think" but are creatures driven by emotion. Hardly what is wanted to make the sort of decisions required in medicine.
Much as changed, thank God. But to a large part there is still much to sort out. Nurses still pretty much remain dependent upon employers to practice. That is unless you become an AP nurse your career is spent working as the employee of a facility or service. Unlike an attorney, physician, dentist, plumber, carpenter, electrician or rather ironically those who practice the world's oldest profession, nurses cannot work independently.
I do a job and get paid for it, therefore I'm a professional.
I just googled "what is a profession" and the first definition was
Yep, nursing meets that definition. And I do it and get paid to do it, therefore I'm a professional.
Yup. And by that definition toll collectors and fast food employees are in the same class as architects.
So that is accurate, but dependent on usage. In the context of job classification, I am pretty sure toll collectors, nurses and architects would be in different categories. And being put into a different category than an architect is no more insulting to me. than putting the toll collector in a different class than a nurse.
I have taken care of plenty of professionals who appreciate my professionalism. That doesn't put us in the same job classification. I appreciate a good cup of coffee, but not sure being barista is the same as having a skilled trade, despite it taking skill.
I don't know if teachers would be considered professionals? Professors, sure. But I would lump most nurses with police, teachers, etc.
I wonder why you call yourself dirty. I have disliked this for a long time. How did you choose your name?
I don't know why you or the others whose response I've read here have stated they are not professionals, but I have been a professional nurse for several decades. I deal with life and death.
I am free to refuse a patient if I have a valid reason to do so, like the patient called me a foul name
for being the wrong color or gender or something like that. So can you.
Until you all start believing that you are extremely important, that you save lives and quality of life, no one else will believe it about you either.
So you punch a time clock, you wear a uniform, you clean bodily fluids. You also do complex math calculations, communicate with physicians and pharmacists, observe changes in patients' conditions, and resolve problems between departments and between visitors, staff, and others.
Have you noticed that today doctors are often employees? They have to see a certain number of pts within a certain time frame and bring in a certain amount of business. Are they non-professionals?
And while a lawyer or dentist or veterinarian might turn away a certain client (not able to get paid by them?), a lot of lawyers are glad to see any clients these days - mortgages, tuition, etc. motivate them more than you might think. Or maybe they are tired of handling the business aspect of a practice and prefer to be employed.
For the love of God, STOP PUTTING YOURSELVES DOWN!!!!
And for the OP - please correct that surveyor STAT!!!!
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
And for the OP - please correct that surveyor STAT!!!!
The OP was completing a paper survey; therefore, there would be no surveyor to correct unless she accomplished the nebulous feat of contacting the person/entity who wrote the survey.
A big part of "being" a professional is acting professional. Is nursing a trade or profession? I don't know. If the expectations for professional nursing behaviors were set a little higher it would help the perception. I work in a well respected hospital that is working towards the 80% BSN by 2020 and encourages special certifications in your specialty. In staff meetings and at special training days "off the clock" you will see some people wearing yoga pants, jeans, flip flops. Other nurses show up in business casual or suit & ties. It's interesting to see some nurses embrace life long training and learning, working 'off the clock" on poster presentations, articles etc. Then there are nurses who grumble about everything..they just want to come in and do their job then go home. Professionalism is a mentality. Where I work it's a real mixed bag, but the bar doesn't always seem to be set to high.
To me, the title "professional" is similar to the title "professor" vs. "teacher" in this scenario. A professor has been educated to a "professional" career position, but they're still a teacher.
I think you can be proficient without formally being called a professional because it's not an insult, it's just saying that your status on what color of collar you wear (white, blue, etc) is not that of a doctor, who educationally is a superior.
So, if you do your job well and are skilled, then you're a professional, even though you can't say your career is that of the same rank as a doctor.
Agreed! Until the BSN is the minimum requirement for entering nursing we will never truly be viewed as professionals, IMO.
Right, which will never happen, at least not anytime soon with all the baby boomers starting to get into nursing homes. And can you imagine only BSN RNs working at nursing homes?
No nursing is not a professional designation. It is considered an emerging profession because we have too many entry points into practice--diploma, ADN, BSN, and potentially an MSN. This from what I can glean from research is the primary reason we are not considered professionals. It has nothing to do with wearing a uniform or any of the other suggestions I've read in this tread.
Please be aware that this conversation is NOT meant to diminish the skills that nurses have, it just help define the specific set of skills that nurses have.
I like TheCommuter's reference to profession vs. technician:
One more thought...I found a link that describes the 10 fundamental elements of a profession. Nursing falls short on a couple of the elements. Namely, the typical nurse cannot pick and choose or turn away his/her 'clients.' Our 'clients' can refuse us, but we cannot refuse them.
Also, bedside nurses will have patients, a.k.a. 'clients,' without the need to attract them.
Both the technician and the professional are competent at their jobs. They both have the skill and experience to perform necessary tasks. Both a technician and a professional make their livelihood from their chosen field, and are not amateurs.
Technicians have a script which they follow. They identify a problem or situation and search for someone who knows what to do or can provide explicit steps that tell them how to proceed. Technicians are trained within a select, limited number of skills of a profession.
Have you ever had a technician x-ray you or take your blood? These procedures require specific steps that rarely vary. Everything depends on accuracy and precision. Technicians are different from professionals. They don't need to be concerned about individual differences among patients, their perception of what is happening to them, or how to interpret the x-ray. They don't have to make complex decisions based on a broad base of knowledge and experience.
Doctors, on the other hand, are professionals.They not only understand the need for specific procedures; they know how to interpret results, make decisions based on what they find, and know how to explain what is happening to their patients.
Doctors have a powerful foundational base grounded in how the body functions, is interconnected, and how symptoms are related. They have a coherent theory of how the body operates lawfully. They draw on this knowledge in order to make moment to moment decisions. The thing that stands out is that a technician is employed strictly for their skill, and not for their creativity, thought process or input. Their work is practical, even proficient, but not instructional or insightful. In other words, they do as they are told, and that is where their value begins and ends.
On the surface, the professional may look like the technician. The professional can do all the things the technician does. The big difference is that the professional is also a teacher, consultant, and adviser. Their value exceeds that of the technician, because they share insight, lessons and advice about their chosen field.
Perhaps the best healthcare example is the pharmacists vs. the pharmacy technician.
Nurses have traditionally been the ones that implemented physician's orders†(hence the definition of technician). In today's healthcare setting, with shortages of physicians and nurses, with the aid of technology, technicians are gaining more autonomy and acting more like professionals.
Because nurses are getting more autonomy, preforming duties traditionally done by physicians (think NP, ability to prescribe, etc.), the term "semi-professional†with the implication of MORE than a technician, but not a professional (as defined by autonomy) is appropriate.
DoGoodThenGo
4,133 Posts
Vocational:
Relating to an occupation or employment. This term is often used in conjunction with work that requires a specialized skill, training, or knowledge set, such as auto mechanics.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/vocational.html
There in a nutshell is why nursing is or has traditionally seen as a "profession" instead of *Profession*.
When early pioneers like Florence Nightingale and others sought to make nurses professionals it was not so much to compete with physicians (as if that would have been allowed), but to elevate nursing to a respectable career fit for decent women to engage in. This was opposed to the slatterns and others that pretty much provided nursing care outside of professed religious.
Everything about nursing from those early days until really rather recently defined nurses task orientated vocational "occupation" or "professional" if you will. By their training and work at the bedside they mostly confined themselves to what are most often called the "nursing arts". Activities of daily life, administration of medications and treatments, that sort of thing. Early nursing education focused on teaching the proper ways to perform such tasks but not so much on the scientific reasons behind why you did what you were doing.
Everything else about nursing historically focused on nurses being subordinate to physicians. The uniforms/dress codes (including the now dreaded cap), the often vast and bewildering hierarchy within hospitals that controlled literally minute aspect of how a nurse practiced within that facility. If you ever want a good laugh find and read a manual of nursing practice from 1950's or so hospital. Bedside/unit nurses had near nil autonomy on matters ranging from patient care to even what color sweater was permitted. As a staff nurse you valued your life cheaply (not literally of course) if you questioned a medical order. You were told/reminded (often at various levels of severity) that your job was to do what you were instructed. In order to get anywhere and or from killing your patient things had to be phrased in such a way as not to offend and or even then needed a supervisor's intervention to cover your hinnie.
Gradually under a wave of second pioneers changes were began to begin an elevation of nurses to a *Profession*. Introducing theory and rationale, moving nursing education out of hospitals, adding more sciences and other supportive/core courses to nursing education to give nurses a broader base of knowledge to draw from and so forth. The idea was to build the necessary framework that is necessary to support a true profession.
Nursing however suffers (if that is the right word) from the fact it is a profession historically and still dominated by females. True professions have power in the public sphere. Women as a whole have lacked any true *power* until really rather recently. For most of recorded history females were chattel and the unique property of their fathers then later husbands. They had no official voice especially in political matters until given the right to vote. Even afterwards things didn't change very much. Florence Nightingale and others managed to transform nurses into a respectable and even admired profession, but it didn't change many attitudes about women in general. When it came to nursing and in particular hospitals/facilities things were the same as in any other place populated with women; you needed a strict system to keep the girls in line. Females are frail and delicate creatures incapable of possessing the mental capacity of men. Women cannot "think" but are creatures driven by emotion. Hardly what is wanted to make the sort of decisions required in medicine.
Much as changed, thank God. But to a large part there is still much to sort out. Nurses still pretty much remain dependent upon employers to practice. That is unless you become an AP nurse your career is spent working as the employee of a facility or service. Unlike an attorney, physician, dentist, plumber, carpenter, electrician or rather ironically those who practice the world's oldest profession, nurses cannot work independently.