Professional Roles and Values, Essay Example

Functional Differences – Board of Registered Nursing

Overall, the Board of Registered Nursing exists to protect members of the public, including patients. The Board of Nursing is a government regulated agency under the Nurse Practice Act, under supervision by the state’s legislature. Furthermore, it is needed to provide nurses with licensing for practice. For an individual to become a licensed nurse, these boards require that the nurse pass the NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination). The Board of Nursing manages continuing education reporting; Therefore, it is necessary for nurses to follow these requirements in order to establish patient protection. The Florida Board of Nursing is the organization responsible for the oversight of my personal practice. They are responsible for managing license applications and renewals, indicating that they are able to define who is and who is not able to practice within the state. Because I am a medical/surgical nurse, it is important for me to understand that it regulates the medical/surgical practice area by ensuring that every nurse practicing in Florida meets minimum requirements for safe practice. In addition, it is responsible for coordinate the assessments that determine whether nurses meet the minimum standards necessary to be employed in this specialized area. Furthermore, this organization is in place so that nurses “who fall below minimum competency or who otherwise present a danger to the public shall be prohibited from practicing in the State of Florida” (Florida Board of Nursing, 2015, p. 1).

Professional Nursing Organization

Professional Nursing Organizations are needed to further nursing practice and ensure that all practicing nurses are certified. Professional Nursing Organizations allow nurses to gain access to professional development, conferences, networking, and career assistance. Nurses can help contribute to this by discussing their observations during practice and compiling these findings into reports to be submitted to their professional organizations for discussion at conferences or publication on their websites. A Professional Nursing Organization that is relevant to my nursing specialty area, the medical/surgical field, is the Florida Nurses Association (Florida Nurses Association, 2015, p.1). Since my field is closely related to general practice, this is the most relevant nursing organization to my personal practice in the state of Florida. it allows members to form Special Interest Groups (SIGS) that consist of at least 10 specialists who wish to focus on the discussion or advancement of a field of their interest. This is beneficial to nurses in the medical/surgical field because it facilitates pertinent conversations about patient care and the advancement of the field with regards to current research and other current events. The Professional Nursing Organization impact’s my nursing practice by helping me become certified in the medical/surgical field, working to activity improve working conditions for nurses, finding jobs, and finding seminars related to practice.

Comparison

The differences between the Board of Nursing and the Professional Association are that the Board of Nursing is responsible for licensing, disciplinary action, and legislation, while the Professional Association is responsible for professional development and building connections. Continuing education units are provided by the Professional Nursing Organization at reduced rates to members, especially in the specialty area. Therefore, the Florida Nurses Association would be ideal for me to gain continuing education units as a medical/surgical specialty nurse. In addition, the Professional Nursing Organization facilitates networking, conferences, career help, and often has journals focusing on the area of specialization. This is important to my personal practice because it will allow me to understand the guidelines I should follow during practice in addition to how I can learn more about my field. However, both organizations facilitate the development of the nurse.

Nursing Code Examples

As a BSN, I am dedicated to the practice of nursing in a manner that will allow me to provide my patients with an expert quality of care. To increase the standards of care present in the nursing practice, I will implement evidence-based nursing practices in a manner that is consistent with existing knowledge. This is related to provision 6 of the American Nurses Association code of ethics, which states “The nurse participates in establishing, maintaining, and improving health care environments and conditions of employment conducive to the provision of quality health care and consistent with the values of the profession through individual and collective action” (ANA, 2015, p.23). Furthermore, I will report my own observations and analyze them in a manner that allows me to contribute to the current literature on quality improvement. It is the responsibility of all nurses, myself included, to ensure that we act according to the prescribed standards of care. According to board of nursing standards, I will remain compliant by implementing safe and competent nursing care, and as a member of the American Nurses Association, I will implement local standards and contribute to the development and application of these regulatory standards in my local health care setting (NCSBN, 2015). Provision 7 of the code of ethics states, “The nurse participates in the advancement of the profession through contributions to practice, education, administration, and knowledge development” (ANA, 2015, p. 27). I do this by taking note of my observations and applying them to the development of knowledge in the field. I have already implemented the safeguarding of patients according to these two practices. First, in accordance with evidence-based practice I have helped recommend new treatment methods to patient with cancer, suggesting a combination of three chemotherapeutic drugs over the prescribe two. This helped the patient, who had begun to build resistance against her current medication. Second, I regularly record my unique observations in a manner that will allow me to publish my experiences if they are deemed to be beneficial to the nursing community. For example, in this situation, I was sure to record that this combination of drugs was useful following the implementation of combination drug use for patients with breast cancer.

Professional Traits

I will implement provisions of ethical nursing code into my practice to ensure that I will be able to provide the best possible care. As such, I will maintain cultural competence in a manner that will allow me to provide equal care to my patients and I will consider the vulnerability of my patients as it pertains to their decision making process. As a member of an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals, I will enact effective communication, promotion of knowledge, collaboration, and the establishment of trust (ANA, 2015). I will communicate with my team by providing comprehensive written and oral messages; promote knowledge by reading peer-reviewed literature, making decisions after consulting my team, and establishing trust by making decisions based on these factors. Overall, these four components come into play to improve patient care, as they build upon one another to ensure that informed and accurate decisions will be made.

Nursing Theory

Rogers’ theory, the “Science of Unitary Human Beings” has influenced and will continue to influence my nursing practice. It shows us that while it is important to treat nursing as a science due to the knowledge that nurses must attain, it also acts as an art form because there is a human aspect to nursing as well (Rogers, 1989). I will implement this theory in my practice because it is important to treat all patients as people, maintaining the human aspect of nursing. In practice, I often have to balance the patient’s physical care with their mental care. This theory reminds me to pay equal attention to both factors so that my patients could receive the best possible care. Furthermore, this theory reminds all nurses of their responsibilities towards their patients, indicating that they are responsible for the totality of the patient’s care.

Contributions

Furthermore, I will follow in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale, who selflessly put her patients before herself and worked diligently to ensure their care. Her use of statistical knowledge in the field serves as a reminded of the importance of data in nursing practice, and reminds all nurses to be analytical about our decisions and actions. Through the use of histograms, she was able to summarize the mortality rate of patients at her hospital, allowing her to gain a better understanding of how practices should be altered. It is important for modern nurses to take this approach because it will allow them to make better decisions for their patients. I plan to mirror Florence Nightingale’s diligence in my own nursing practice. Furthermore, she serves as a model for all nurses to strive for excellence in practice.

Scenario

Autonomy is defined as the respect of another’s right to decide upon his or her own course of action. Respect for autonomy can be enacted by allowing the patient contributes to his or her own care. I have applied this to my personal practice by allowing my patients to provide me with information regarding their preferences for end of life care. It is the nurses responsible to determine these desires if the individual is competent and to act upon these desires if they are deemed reasonable due to legality and availability of resources. I have enacted these wishes in my own nursing practice to ensure that my patients would be comfortable during their final days or hours.

Nonmaleficence is the requirement that medical professionals do no harm. An example of nonmaleficence in the medical/surgical field is ensuring that harm is not being done to the patient when using technology to extend his or her life. Furthermore, quality of life concerns should be assessed to determine whether medications being provided are benefiting the patient by prolonging life or hurting the patient by causing pain. It is important for the nurse to have an understanding of the balance so that he or she could truly do no harm. I have been required to make this decision in my own personal practice, specifically dealing with patients in a comatose state. It was important for me to convey how I believed the patient felt so the family would be able to make a better decision as to keep their relative on life support, or whether it should be removed.

Sources

ANA. (2015). Code of Ethics for Nurses. http://www.nursingworld.org/codeofethics

Florida Board of Nursing. (2015). About. http://floridasnursing.gov/

Florida Nurses Association. (2015). About. https://www.floridanurse.org/

NCSBN. (2015). Boards & Regulation. https://www.ncsbn.org/boards.htm

Rogers, M.E. (1989). An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.