Introduction
Different professions require various approaches from employees, and certain job responsibilities form opinions on specific positions and their perception by the society. The area of nursing is the sphere where special attention is paid to not only the professionalism of the staff but also to the dedication of the profession. The lack of desire to help those in need and provide quality and full-fledged care characterizes a junior medical worker as an irresponsible specialist who does not perform his or her immediate duties. The nursing profession is distinctive and has specific characteristics that are peculiar to this sphere, which makes it unique and implies a special approach to work.
The Image of Nursing Profession
Nursing as the separate field of medicine requires careful preparation since it is impossible to become a highly qualified specialist and a valuable employee without proper education. Nevertheless, as Hoeve, Jansen, and Roodbol (2014), note, “the public does not always value the skills and competences nurses have acquired through education and innovation” (p. 295). Some stereotypes formed in the society do not allow treating nursing as an area of ​​medicine where knowledge is essential.
This stereotype, however, can be challenged because professional staff in this area has many skills that are needed to provide care to different patients. As Grace, Willis, Roy, and Jones (2016) remark, the training of the staff is reinforced and requires dedication from the staff, otherwise, the work permit cannot be obtained. If the nurse is inexperienced, the chances of mistakes are high, which is unacceptable in medical practice. According to Girvin, Jackson, and Hutchinson (2016), the role of junior medical personnel is often misunderstood. Therefore, the prevailing stereotypes are erroneous, which adversely affects the image of the profession.
Nursing as a Distinct Profession
Since the training of nurses is complex, this profession has every right to be considered distinctive, for instance, like jurisprudence, psychology, and other fields. A care specialist should have enough knowledge in various methods and techniques of medical aid, professional theories, interaction and communication with patients, and many other aspects of the work. Nursing involves different disciplines, which makes it multifaceted and quite difficult. Moreover, one of the most significant criteria determining the degree of professionalism in this area is devotion to work (Chang et al., 2015).
Nursing staff often experience increased fatigue and difficulties in caring for patients since a variety of cases are encountered in practice. Nevertheless, the specialist should be ready to provide assistance to all those who need it, without demarcating duties and not refusing to carry out job descriptions. According to Sabatino et al. (2014), “the recognition of nursing professional dignity could have a positive impact on patients” (p. 669). Therefore, it is important to take consider this activity to be responsible and worthy and treat the junior medical staff as generalists with sufficient knowledge to provide full-fledged care.
Conclusion
The distinctiveness of the nursing profession is evident since it requires compliance with a number of exceptional requirements that are not typical for other areas of medicine. Special approaches that are practiced in this sphere make it unique. In the process of work, not only medical skills are used but also various communication, psychological, and other attainments. Complex preparation and the need to have appropriate professional skills allow saying that nursing is the field of medicine that deserves recognition in the society.
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Grace, P. J., Willis, D. G., Roy, C., & Jones, D. A. (2016). Profession at the crossroads: A dialog concerning the preparation of nursing scholars and leaders. Nursing Outlook, 64(1), 61-70.
Hoeve, Y. T., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. (2014). The nursing profession: Public image, self-concept and professional identity. A discussion paper. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 70(2), 295-309.
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