Nursing as a Profession in Australia
Introduction
Nursing has come a long way since its primitive inception in social care provision within the centuries. What once was considered an auxiliary kind of role in the care of the patients, the nursing profession is now recognized as a mainstream driver and determinant of care of patients and in decision making about the health as well. Now nursing demonstrates some of the strongest decision making powers and accountability, and its influence in various areas of health care provision is increasing consistently due to the importance of nurses. Nursing profession in Australia underwent different transitions; however, social acceptance remained at the crux of the situation.
In this essay, our discussion is related to the reasons of considering nursing as a profession. The question arises that why nurses should also demand pay for their services from the patients and their relatives indirectly or directly in case of home based services. Why nursed are needed and whether nurses really needed by the social society. These questions need to be discussed so that students can understand the importance of his studies for making it as a profession in future.
The step-by-step discussion will be helpful to assess and answer all the questions related to the need of considering and accepting nursing as a profession.
History of Nursing
Nursing has been around the globe since long time ago, it is far amazing that how this profession has grown, and how fast has it continued to cover up the world. The profession is considered as old as about 250 B.C. when only men take part in this profession and women were strictly not allowed until 1800 centaury, when 38 volunteer nurses were sent to Florance Nightingale camp in turkey to take care of the war prisoners in the British camp. Since than the concept of nursing was limited, in 1900 centaury the nurses education was introduced in the colleges and universities rather than being limited to the hospital industry only. The appointed nurses worked for a 12 hour shift either day or night, their task include, care of the patients, maintain good relation with he patients, maintain their standard behavior as per the nursing codes, scrubbing, and washing of dishes for a week, fortnightly, or even a month the same duties continued. The later and modern responsibilities of nurses include sterilization of instruments, such as bandaging, clearing the private rooms, and are paid a reasonable amount as remuneration. Today this concept has taken newer stronger professionals shape taking dynamic decisions and bearing very high responsibility of the level of care entrusted on to them (Hawthorne, 2001). Nurses now work with collages and advisors to the medical professionals in deciding the right course of action in patient care. In other words, nursing is an occupation that evolved itself as a dedicated profession after decades of continuous struggles towards recognition, service and honorable duty spontaneously (Dooley, 1990).
Nursing is regarded as a universal profession that has been given its roots by many figures in the profession. This unique similarity of the development of the profession based on the same ideal of providing care to the people is the key differentiating point of the profession. Some of the key developers include Linda Richards, Isabel Hampton Robb, Sophia Palmer and Lavinia Dock respectively (Hawthorn, 2001).
Professional Education
Nursing is the work of trained person; any untrained and non-qualified individual cannot perform the duties of a nurse. Furthermore, nursing is a highly complex field requiring very stringent methods of training and development. This profession currently falls into one of the three main categories with further subdivisions. These include nurse practitioners, registered nurses and enrolled nurses respectively. Therefore, Dooley in 1990 has noted it down that the nurses require a qualification which shall assist them i their tasks, a school work , or a diploma is not necessary for a nurse, the requirement of high compatible knowledge, skills require a graduation degree, or post graduate work so the tasks could be performed accordingly. (Dooley, 1990).
Requirements of Nursing Professionals
Many scholars believe that lack of nursing professionals was the key challenge and this may be due to no scope of career and development, Takase, Kershaw and Burt believe that it was more of a stereotyping and professional image that has created these challenges in the first place. Actually, nursing services for too long have been perceived “feminine and powerless”, not the right words any professional would like to associate with his or her career (Takase, Kershaw & Burt, 2002).
Baseless Perceptions
The predominant perception of nursing being a profession for women continues to drive much of the industry. The nursing professionals therefore now acknowledge the need to overcome this barrier in order to create more recruitment in the profession (Dockery, 2004).
Those nurses who grew in the experience ladder increase their academic and clinical qualifications and competencies, without having successors to take their place. Alongside, the leadership development talent pipeline was acutely missing, making the gap between senior nursing staff and lower or novice learning staff wider. Communication therefore, has become a serious concern for nursing profession’s development and survival (Russell, 2005).
Traits of Nursing
Before concluding and discussing the reaons of nursing as profession, it is very much important to describe the traits which make and required nursing as a profession in Australia. Some major traits of nursing profession are described in the following ways;
Since specialized knowledge and skills are required for nursing, it does not give various advantages to its adapters; nursing is long hour job and at times demanding. Therefore, nurses may face a number of challenges in their job including lifting which is known to be a frequent demand of a nurse’s job (Creegan, Duffield & Forrester, 2003). Nurse has to face job stress and strains, their shifts are frequently shuffled as the basic professional requirement. For determining nursing as a profession, we may opt the following traits:
Self-Directedness’ (SD)
The trait discuss that the person who has any disability, at the core, is held in charge of numerous fundamental tasks, e.g. in charge to chalk out the basic values and goals, and develops the required structure to execute the basic plans. They are supposed to maintain the basic skills; knowledge required for their assigned tasks, either on the job or the investigations settings (Takase, Kershaw & Burt, 2002).
The nursing scope of practice must follow the safety requirements for the patient; moreover nurses in Australia must be reasonably good in their confidence, trust, and work in the best interest of the organization. Professional nurses are supposed to make good quality recommendation to their employers in the betterment of the organizations. The occupational nurses are differentiated from the professional nurses on the basis of their diligence, their responsible attitude; in addition to the extensive care they offer on the patient shows their self directness towards their profession (Takase, Kershaw & Burt, 2002).
Cooperativeness’ (CO)
The Australian nurses are supposed to be cooperative in their profession .i.e. they possess the aptitude to balance their need and requirements with other’s needs and requirements, they do cooperate and encourage cooperation among the patients, the youthful associates, peers, and the relation. The major task of nursing is to be cooperative when the patient requires, the professional nurses understands the link between the patient’s abilities and the relations. The facet of care is entrusted for professional nurses; they may never cooperate on the security, protection or the quality of the service being offered to the patient (Takase, Kershaw & Burt, 2002).
‘Self-transcendence’ (ST)
The self-transcendence, physical health in addition to psychological welfare of people was included in a report released in Australia. The target group of populaces included people over an age of 50, in the years 1993 till 1995 (Department of Health Western Australia, 2003). The tendency of Self-transcendence was larger in the older Australian women as compared to the Australian men; the results were highly affected by a number of factors like: religion association, matrimonial standing (in women) moreover age matter among men. No physically powerful correlations were experiential among self-transcendence and psychological or physical health. The Australian nurses prefer to expand their vision in accordance with their profession; they maintain their self and focus on the goal and vision of the organization (Takase & Kershaw, 2002). As per the Australian Nursing Code of Conduct the nurses practice their profession with diligence in a safe and competent manner (Takase, Kershaw & Burt, 2002).
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