Nursing Professional Identity

Nursing Professional Identity

According to Caza and Creary (2016), professional identity is the sense of oneself influenced by the values, norms, and characteristics of the nursing discipline, which results in a person feeling, acting, and thinking like a nurse.

Significant professional identity characteristics

The three most important attributes of professional identity are changing identities, being, and acting. Changing identities refer to the evolving nature of nursing and the willingness of a nurse to adapt to the changes. Being refers to a nurse being compassionate, professional, kind, and patient. Acting refers to conducting oneself in an ethical manner (Caza & Creary, 2016).

Adaptation of these characteristics in a clinical setting

Nursing is a profession that evolves on a regular basis. New technologies and innovations make the profession more interesting and effective. Simple changes, such as the introduction of electronic health records some years back and the use of patient barcodes, have made the job more interesting and easier to care for patients. I know that there are many more innovations to come, and I, therefore, keep my mind open to change in my workplace and the world of nursing. I would not like to be a hindrance to any change, as is the case with some organizational changes. I also like to follow up on the latest technological prototypes and inventions that aim to improve patient care through my numerous subscriptions with different organizations, including nursingworld.org and sciencedirect.com.

I believe I am a compassionate person, and I am naturally compassionate with my patients. Kindness comes with compassion, and therefore, I don’t think it will be difficult for me to be kind both to the patients and my colleagues. Being patient may be a continuous process because some situations may test my caring nature and may tempt me to lose my patience. However, I believe that practicing techniques such as breathing techniques before I lose my patience will work for me; I will learn other techniques as I carry out my duties to better help me in trying situations.

Lastly, being ethical and professional will be founded on the principles embedded in the ANA code of ethics (Olson & Stokes, 2016). I will ensure that each patient is treated with confidentiality, makes autonomous decisions without my coercion and that I do no harm but good to my patients. I will also advocate for the proper use of resources at my workplace to avoid wastage and allow for justice in allocating resources. For example, food wastage is a major problem in healthcare settings (Alshqaqeeq et al., 2018); I will propose changes to ensure that patients get nutritious and sufficient quantities of food while simultaneously cutting out wastage.

Reflect on your educational journey and describe how this shaped your professional identity.

One of the main things I have appreciated about this educational journey is the interactions with other students. It has let me realize the importance of sharing ideas, thoughts, and experiences of other people, as these will help me to deal with diverse situations in the workplace based on my classmates’ experiences. I have learned that sometimes it is important to trust in one’s instincts even when a patient is adamant about having their way and the power of negotiating with a patient to get better health outcomes.

Create your goals for continued professional identity formation during your career as a nurse.

At the moment, I am yet to decide on whether to pursue geriatric nursing or community health nursing. I believe after working for a year or so, I will have made up my mind and then pursue an advanced degree and later open a practice in rural Colorado.

References

Alshqaqeeq, F., Twomey, J. M., & Overcash, M. R. (2018). Food waste in hospitals. International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 17(2-3), 186-196.

Caza, B. B., & Creary, S. (2016). The construction of professional identity. In Perspectives on contemporary professional work. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Olson, L. L., & Stokes, F. (2016). The ANA code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements: Resource for nursing regulation. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 7(2), 9-20.

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Creating Your Professional Identity
Module 11 Content

Creating Your Professional Identity
Competency

Determine the attributes that help form the professional nurses’ identity.
Apply principles of professional identity and professionalism.

Scenario

As a nursing student, you have a vision of your core values and expectations as a professional nurse. In this assignment, create a plan to guide you as you form your professional identity.

Instructions

This formation will include the following:

Describe the meaning of nursing professionalism identity
Identify the most important professional identity characteristics/attributes
Explain how you will adapt these characteristics/attributes in the clinical setting
Reflect on your educational journey and describe how this shaped your professional identity.
Create your goals for continued professional identity formation during your career as a nurse.
Provide stated ideas with professional language and attribution for credible sources with correct APA citation, spelling, and grammar.
Submit your completed assignment by following the directions linked below. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates.