Top 5 reasons" why is nursing a profession"

Nurses General Nursing

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Gimmie your top 5 reasons that nursing is considered a profession. What exactlt makes up a profession? thanks (im polling for a paper im preparing)

Yes, but.... if nursing is a profession why are so many of us required to punch the clock??? Are any other professionals-MD's, lawyers, etc-required to clock in and out???

Other professions, again MD's and lawyers, are considered by the public and other professions as being professionals--does the public or doctors consider nurses to be professionals--I don't see any evidence that the majority do. With a few exceptions, most doctors don't see what nurses do as being of any value, unless of course, they are directly benefited in some way.

(Sorry to be so crabby--it's been a bad week!)

You're going to just hate this, but I believe nursing is a profession because nurses say it is. To other people (doctors, patients, etc.) nursing is a technical skill. Maybe we should call ourselves technicians! Technicians fit the "dictionary" definition of profession posted already, plus they usually punch a clock!

Because it is a skilled trade.

Nursing is a profession, but only we as nurses can relay that to others. I guess its a bit like nurses when they try to say what it is that they do that makes them unique.

I beliece we are a profession due to the following:

We have specific training which is delivered at tertiary level for obtainment of a comprehensice nursing degree which is enforced according to competencies from the nursing council of NZ the regulatory body.

On obtaining the degree we then have a state examination which gives us the manadate to practice as a RN by the way of a practicing certificate

This practicing cert is renewed every year. We are currently having to work on clinical career pathways which outlines specific competencies we have to prove we are upholding. The council will audit a percentage (cant do all nurses of NZ, what a mission) and then they say yay or nay. We also have a requirement to produce this to our current employers.

We work by a code of conduct

No one can call themselves a nurse without having achieved the degree or practicing cert

We belong to a professional body ie New Zealand Nurses Organisation

By the way I dont punch in and out for my hours of work. I work automonously and plan my own day according to client needs.

Yes, nursing is a profession by definition.

Public opinion may not always think nursing is a profession though. The public can be pretty stupid though. I'm sure we all know of these mental superstars.....Like the patient who tells you that the scar on their abdomen is from "some surgery a couple years ago......think they took out a part of my gallbladder or pancreas or maybe it was my liver.....no I don't remember what the doctor said was wrong with me". I personally don't give a c*@p what the public thinks about nursing or about me.

The time clock, on the other hand, is a double edged sword. I worked as a salaried 'professional' for many years before deciding to go back to school and become a nurse. Working 60+ hours a week, staying late and having to cancel plans, having to come in on weekends when I'd already worked the whole week.....and guess what? NO EXTRA PAY. You get paid based on a 40 hour work week as a "professional" but you are expected to put in at least 50 in most jobs, and usually more. You get the same salary whether you have been given 40 hours of work to do in a week or 80.

According to Richard T Schafers Sociology Seventh edition a profession: 1. Has a systemic body of theroy or abstract knowledge. A"occupation" does not. 2. Profession has extensive training a occupation has little training. 3. A profession has a higher degree of specialization. An occupation has little. 3. There is extensive aoutonomy in a profession. There is little in an occupation. 2. A profession has self regulatory associations, an occupation does not. 3. the client can be veiwed as somewhat subordinate in a profession, in an occupation "the customer is always right" 4. A profession requires formal certification. A occupation does not. 5. In a profession there is a high sense of community with similar jobholders. In a occupation it is low. 6. A profession will have a highly developed code of ethics, an occupation will not........I have been a nurse for 15 years. In my experience I see many nurses that behave unprofessionally. In turn I see many more that behave in a very professional dignified way. Are nurses a profession? Of course we are!!! A "time clock" has nothing to do with the definition of a profession. It just so happens that is the way we are paid.

Hiedi

Well put

Like what you have written most of that applies here

I dont punch in and out

Tookie

Nursing is a profession. We have to have college degrees to practice nursing. We are vital in the life and death of people. We are the backbone of physicians. I am so tired of hearing that "we didn't get in the nursing profession to make money." I never hear that in circles of lawyers or doctors. They help others as well as Nurses do. I got into nursing because I love helping others but I also am the sole supporter of my family. I have a large knowledge base that is not common knowledge. It is specific to the health care industry. It angers me when people do not see Nursing as a profession. If they were no nurses or if nurses would stand together and unit perhaps the public would see nursing as a profession. Ignorance is bliss. Nursing is a profession.

Originally posted by fergus51

I was told a profession has to:

Have a unique body of knowledge (debatable with nursing)

I don't know about that, what other profession uses theories and ties in nursing diagnosis like we (in the technical sense) do? I would like to see a doctor write a nursing diagnosis.

It isn't much, but it is something to set nursing apart.....

OK!! That does it!! I'm moving to New Zealand!! It sounds like NZ nursing is much like home health nursing here, except maybe... without quite so much paperwork? :p

After reading the NZ post, though, I've had a thought! Until we have a paradigm shift in our thinking about nursing, we will be stuck in this semi-professional rut! Clocking in & out like the housekeeping staff, and mooing at some supervisor who got to be supervisor because she/he couldn't DO anything!

Just think about this...

What if nurses worked independently, like doctors do? We come to work in the morning (or our partner comes to work in the morning & we come in the evening) and care for a given group of patients... We plan the care... we carry out the care... Maybe even a real team, with dietitians, CNAs, LPNs, etc. etc....

Do you think JCAHO would buy into an idea like this???

Specializes in LDRP; Education.

I'm not convinced we're a profession. First of all, we all don't have college degrees. Secondly, there was a thread about this earlier where some good ideas were mentioned:

Nursing Profession thread

Originally posted by rebelwaclause

Because it is a skilled trade.

Actually, I would consider "skilled trade" and "profession" to be, if not mutually exclusive, then at the very least 2 entirely separate categories. My father was an operating engineer all of his life (guy who operates heavy equipment like bulldozers and backhoes at a construction site), and neither he nor any of his co-workers (and O.E's are arguably among the "elite" of skilled tradesmen in the construction field) considered what they did a "profession."
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