Paper Exploring Professional Identity in Nursing: Caring, Associations, and Advocacy for Advancement

Introduction

Associations of nurses are organizations committed to personal and professional members' development and general professional advancement. Professional nursing associations are very crucial because the field of nursing is ever-changing. Professional development is an essential phase of learning lifelong. Nurses engage to maintain and develop competence, support career goals and achievements, and enhance professional nursing practices, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA) (Walton, 2017).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Nurses' organization ensures that nurses are empowered to stay up to date on contemporary practices and receive a glimpse of his to innovate and advance patient care, considering what other health facilities are doing. Being part of the professional association of nurses issues opportunities, information, and resources to nurses that otherwise may be unavailable (Walton, 2017). The major obstacle is the cost of becoming a member of many organizations. The associations at the national and state level can have a substantial annual fee. However, it is normally encouraged that individuals should at least be a member of any association related to their practice directly when the fees are affordable (Walton, 2017).

Caring in Nursing

The dynamic importance of nursing is a result of caring. In fact, various terms like nursing care, care receiving, caregiving, and care, among others, are interchangeably employed and sometimes promote confusion. Therefore, the care concept can be viewed as a part of nursing that is least understood. It is essential to note that since there are various ways in which caring can be defined, it all depends on an individual's belief in caring in nursing. My belief in caring in nursing has been clarified by Watson's theory of caring, which illustrates that caring is simply an idea of nursing that is moral whereby the result is the preservation, enhancement, and protection of human dignity (Percy & Richardson, 2018).

According to Watson's theory of caring, caring in nursing entails commitment and will to care, values, consequences, caring actions, and knowledge. All the caring in nursing is related to the human responses intersubjective to transaction limitations and one's power-knowledge, the nurse caring process knowledge, self-knowledge, the environment, personal interactions, and the response of a human to health illness (Percy & Richardson, 2018). Furthermore, Watson claimed that the importance of caring and human care might be futile only if it can contribute to the philosophy of action. The concrete way of caring that is actual can transcend the value and then pass it on. The caring value is built in the creative nurse who is also self-transcending.

I believe that the nursing caring interactions that are human-to-human cannot be understood or validated by using materialistic, deterministic, and positivistic mindsets. Therefore, it is required for a nurse to conduct some acts of the patient that are ethically and legally binding. Every value of caring and human care surpasses the performance's mere action. Caring entails the person's spirit and sense of self-identity. It also involves making commitments to the patient as well as a sense of dedication. Thus, specific caring may surpass the value since it is built in the creative nurse who is also self-transcending (Percy & Richardson, 2018).

Professional Identity

Professional identity is defined as an individual's professional self-concept based on experiences, motives, values, beliefs, and attributes that have been the main core of career life. The success of a career is normally associated with the successful construction of a professional identity. Such association is usually crucial for the modern careers associated with the boundaries that are shifting in global, national, and organizational work arrangements.

Consequently, both modern careers and professional identity are subject to social and relational influences beyond or even within an individual's present organization or occupation. It has been found that the transitions in the labor market might be social mobilization attributable based on the identities that are linked to age, gender, ethnicity, or race instead of the traditional workplace structures (Muzio et al., 2019).

It is unimaginable in the world today that an individual's career without inserting an individual's social context into it. It is like life's aspects, such as social stigmatization that may hold on one's gender, religion, or race. However, the research on modern careers and professional identity has examined cultural identities that are stigmatized or stigmatized. A stigmatized cultural identity is one in which its group members are assumed to be inferior or tainted, leading to a blemished identity preventing easy inclusion in society (Walton, 2017).

The inferiority assumption by the society members may cause outcomes that are poor like interpersonal or economic discrimination. Individuals are marginalized by stigma by lowering their identity to a one-dimensional feature. Considering the effects of stigma on the construction of professional identity is essential because the process of constructing professional identity within modern careers might not be similar for or altered by at least groups of stigmatized individuals.

It has been found that performance feedback and role models can be used to validate professional identity. More consideration of the relationship between stigma and professional identity is essential from the perspective of an organization as the shift towards modern careers places a larger ethical obligation on an organization to assist their employees in remaining employable and learning new skills (Walton, 2017)

It may be very cumbersome to meet the obligations when helping groups that are stigmatized. Therefore, getting to understand how group members with stigmatized cultural identities negotiate their identities, which are professional issues, is promising for the modern career’s advancement.

Positive self-esteem enhances the nursing image. There is some sense of safety when internalizing the profession's identity through an individual's experience and values. In a nutshell, I am fully involved in a professional identity as a nurse; however, many factors facilitate or obstruct my progression to a self-concept development from self-presenting. These incorporate some social transition cycles.

Professional Association

Being a member of a professional nursing association is accompanied by a vast of benefits like; networking, career assistance, strengthening the profession of nursing, certification discounts, having access to mentors and experts, discounted rates that help one to continue with education courses, and products and resources among others (Muzio et al., 2019).

I have realized that with all the different choices, it is very overwhelming sometimes and confusing to decide which association of nurses to join. Therefore, I would opt to join the American Nurses Association during my nursing career from my research. It covers a wider scope of the practice and provides a comprehensive means to stay alert to the nursing trends. ANA is also specific to my specialty; I would choose it and leave other associations. Apart from those, the association fits my needs and is in a position to assist me in my professional practices.

To briefly talk about the American Nurses Association (ANA), it is one of the most recognizable, largest, and oldest nursing associations, and it was founded in the year 1896. The ANA ensures that nurses' rights at the workplace are promoted and lobbies Congress through different member associations and organizational affiliates (Muzio et al., 2019).

Conclusion

The main objective of the advocacy efforts by the professional organizations is to offer education to the public, all professional nurses as well the association members on the essence of creative ideas, the broad base membership, as well as the participation which is energetic in assisting the profession, move and improve to advanced levels. Earlier enough, nurses who had a vision realized that associations are needed, which could help meet the changes in the world's economic, cultural, and social sectors.

Nowadays, the leaders of the association that were elected remain responsible to their members and incorporate the input of members by coming up with new strategies to help in advancing healthcare through the profession of nurses, therefore, enhancing members to make contributions to accountability as well as the profession's voice to the society. When people come together more powerful, and in one voice, great outcomes can be achieved.

References

Muzio, D., Aulakh, S., & Kirkpatrick, I. (2019). Professional Occupations and Organizations. Cambridge University Press.

Percy, M., & Richardson, C. (2018). Introducing nursing practice to student nurses: How can we promote care compassion and empathy. Nurse Education in Practice, 29, 200-205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2018.01.008

Walton, K. R. (2017). Barriers to membership in a professional organization for advanced practice nurses.