Question
What is professional values in nursing?
Answer
It is safe to declare that professional values in nursing refer to the attitudes, behaviours and conduct which registered nurses and even student nurses are expected to possess and display in their everyday practice of the nursing profession. According to Sellman (2011) those who choose to become a nurse have a natural tendency towards certain values like care, compassion and perhaps altruism which are normally associated with a caring profession. A study by Rassin (2008) identified respect for human dignity, equality among patients and prevention of suffering as the most highly rated professional values for nurses. Jones (2014) also states that it is important for nurses to adapt the professional values of their workplace. This however, can vary from one care setting to another and from workplace to workplace so the best strategy to ensure that a nurse is able to assimilate all the important professional values in nursing regardless of care setting is to adhere to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code of Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives or simply known as the NMC Code. With this, it can be declared that the NMC Code is actually a collection of professional values in nursing grouped together and presented as canons for nurses to be guided in their everyday practice. In answering the question of what are professional values in nursing, all one needs to do therefore is to look at the NMC Code. Following the NMC Code is in fact required because according to Woogara (2011) failure to adhere to the Code can lead a nurse to be removed from the register and so student nurses must gain a substantial understanding of the Code early in their study of nursing.
References
Jones, J.R. (2014). Adopting professional values. Nursing Standard. 29(13):65.
Rassin, M. (2008). Nurses’ professional and personal values. Nursing Ethics. 15(5):614-630.
Sellman, D. (2011). Professional values and nursing. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. 14(2):203-208.
Woogara, N. (2011). Being professional- what it means for nurses. [online]. Available at: https://www.nursingtimes.net/student-nt/being-professional-what-it-means-for-nurses/5027769.article [Accessed: 13 October 2016].
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Nursing is a profession regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008). The NMC is an organisation set up by the Parliament to protect the public by ensuring that nurses and midwives provide high standards of care to their patients.
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