D1 IP (3119)

Professional Issues

What defines a profession?

 Professions involve essentially intellectual operations;

 They derive their raw material from science and learning;

 This material they work up to a practical and defined end;

 They possess educationally communicable techniques;

 They tend to self-organize; and they are becoming

increasingly altruistic in motivation.

Based on this definition, nursing did not meet the criteria of a profession. In

response, the professional status of nursing was evaluated. Again, nursing was

deficient as a true profession.

What does it take to be a profession?

 A profession is defined as a complex, organized occupation preceded by a long training program geared toward the acquisition of exclusive knowledge necessary to provide a service that is essential or desired by society, leading to a monopoly that provides autonomy, public recognition, prestige, power, and authority for the practitioner.

 Expertise

 Autonomy

 Accountability

 Authority

 Unity

Expertise

 The characteristic of having a high level of specialized skill

and knowledge.

How do we do this?

Educational requirements

Guided practice

Examination for licensure

Certification

Mandatory continuing education

Specialty preparation

Certification Process

Autonomy

 Having the freedom to make independent choices.

How do we do this?

The autonomy of the profession as well as the autonomy of

the individual practitioner.

The ANA Code of Ethics discusses the nurse’s autonomous

decision making and responsibility.

Nurses exercise independent functions, make nursing

diagnoses and initiates self-directed treatment.

Accountability

 The state of being answerable to someone for something

one has done.

How do we do this?

Code of Nursing Ethics

ANA Standards of Nursing Practice

Facility specific Standards of Nurse Practice

Nurse Practice Act for the state we practice

Authority

 The state of having legitimate power and sovereignty.

How do we do this?

The authority to practice nursing is granted by statute,

based upon the contract of the professional’s rights and

responsibilities, and requires mechanisms for public

accountability.

The Nurse Practice Act protects the public from the

unqualified, and it protects professionals’ job territory by

establishing a monopoly.

Unity

 Relates to the ability of organization for the purpose of

fulfilling the profession’s promises and the relationships

that members have with one another.

How do we do this?

Active membership in the ANA

Membership in the nursing association in the state of practice

What do you think?

Occupation or Profession?