Profession: Defined

sunnyjohn · Apr 14, 2006

But here is the Webster's dictionary definition of Profession:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/profession
Based on Your definition of profession, Is Nursing a profession?

Based on this....

4 a : a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation

and this...

A profession is an occupation that requires extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing

Yep, it's a profession.

Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP · Apr 14, 2006

This is actually quite funny. I was in school to be a teacher for four years before switching to nursing. In the last semesters, we were informed of how to judge whether or not something is considered a profession. Nursing was one of the careers we had to judge, which we determined that it is a profession. Sadly, our own teaching careers were not considered a profession. We were missing two very distinct qualifiers, relatively high pay, and governing by our peers. Before you say the Board of Education is a governing body that sets forth standards, let me explain. The Board of Education is not comprised of teachers (peers). It can have teachers on it, but it is not required. It can have almost anyone be a member, like a parent, a mayor, even a nurse! In order for this to qualify, it would have to be composed of teachers, retired teachers, or those with degrees in this area. As for the pay, I know a lot of nurses complain about pay, but let me tell you, teaching is far behind in the pay scale, too. I'm in Mississippi, where you can get a two-year ADN RN licensure, and expect to make about 34,000-40,000 right out of school depending on where you go. For a four-year degree in education, you can expect anywhere from 19,500-24,500 right out of school depending on where you go. How sad is that? In MS, you can make almost twice as much with a two-year degree in nursing as a person with a four-year degree in education. What's that tell you about the quality of our educational system?! Anyway, sorry, I still get irked about that even though I'm not heading in that direction anymore. And by the way, I'm not trying to say anything bad about two-year ADN stuff, that's what I'm going for right now. I just believe that if you have a degree, any degree, you should be able to make more than the local McDonald's fry cook. Okay, I'm stepping down from the soapbox.

control · Apr 14, 2006

This is actually quite funny. I was in school to be a teacher for four years before switching to nursing. In the last semesters, we were informed of how to judge whether or not something is considered a profession. Nursing was one of the careers we had to judge, which we determined that it is a profession. Sadly, our own teaching careers were not considered a profession. We were missing two very distinct qualifiers, relatively high pay, and governing by our peers. Before you say the Board of Education is a governing body that sets forth standards, let me explain. The Board of Education is not comprised of teachers (peers). It can have teachers on it, but it is not required. It can have almost anyone be a member, like a parent, a mayor, even a nurse! In order for this to qualify, it would have to be composed of teachers, retired teachers, or those with degrees in this area. As for the pay, I know a lot of nurses complain about pay, but let me tell you, teaching is far behind in the pay scale, too. I'm in Mississippi, where you can get a two-year ADN RN licensure, and expect to make about 34,000-40,000 right out of school depending on where you go. For a four-year degree in education, you can expect anywhere from 19,500-24,500 right out of school depending on where you go. How sad is that? In MS, you can make almost twice as much with a two-year degree in nursing as a person with a four-year degree in education. What's that tell you about the quality of our educational system?! Anyway, sorry, I still get irked about that even though I'm not heading in that direction anymore. And by the way, I'm not trying to say anything bad about two-year ADN stuff, that's what I'm going for right now. I just believe that if you have a degree, any degree, you should be able to make more than the local McDonald's fry cook. Okay, I'm stepping down from the soapbox.

I agree with you. I'm from MS and my sister taught there for a couple of years.

It is ridiculous.

However, to answer the OPs question, according to those sources and what I've always known about nursing, nursing is a profession.

One thing I think the nursing profession MUST do is transition to BSN level as the minimal educational requirements. I think it would only solidify our profession. Just my opinion.