Professional Identity and Stewardship Part I

Professional Identity and Stewardship Part I

For this assignment, I chose to interview a peer who is a nurse specialist in the dialysis unit. Besides being an active member of numerous healthcare committees within the hospital, the nurse specialist also explained that she was the president of the local American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA) chapter. Professional Identity and Stewardship Part I

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Interview Summary

The interviewee demonstrated to have adequate knowledge of her professional roles as a member of the healthcare team.  She mentioned her major role as that of working with other disciplines in the dialysis unit to positively influence patient health outcomes through constant, relevant and current changes in nursing practice. As a member of the healthcare team, she routinely performed the roles of: evaluating how patients react to medications and treatment for dialysis, overseeing dialysis from the beginning to the end, educating patients on their condition, management and responding to any questions and reviewing the lab work of clients, activities and home medications and informing the respective doctors about changes in the conditions of patients (Ulrich & Kear, 2014). There are also instances when she assisted patients to follow-up with their transplant centers. Lastly, she provided support to the entire healthcare team in ensuring that patients received timely and quality care in a respectful way.

The interviewee defined professionalism as the ability to adhere to and obey the ethics and care standards that guide nursing practice. Therefore, professionalism is having the required skills set and efficiently performing assigned roles and responsibilities as required. These skills should be accompanied by the professional values of; respect, courteousness, honesty and obedience. She summarized that, in the clinical setting, she had a professional responsibility towards patients, the hospital and colleague healthcare providers that she directly interacted with. In clinical nursing practice, professionalism calls for the ability to maintain a positive attitude, being accountable and responsible for actions and decisions made. Towards patients, professionalism involves prioritizing care, good leadership for those under one’s supervision and ethical decision making that positively impacts patient care. In order to be able to achieve this, nurses need to be constantly updated with the most recent evidence-based practices in nursing.

The interviewed peer strongly believed that everyone can be a leader and since everyone can learn new skills and acquire new knowledge from co-workers, which makes them stewards of health care. According to Wong (2015), a healthcare steward can be defined as an individual who helps in the planning, organizing, overseeing or taking care of anything. In this case, since she was responsible for patients who needed dialysis and this requires a high level of planning and organization, she considered herself a steward of healthcare.

With regards to professional advocacy and authenticity, the interviewee started with mentioning how all nurses irrespective of the area of specialization or practice have an advocacy role to communities that they serve, to supervisors, patients, subordinates and even colleagues (Wong, 2015).  Therefore, it is mandatory that everyone, more so leaders express professional advocacy and authenticity. She also explained how integral authenticity is as it impacts the nursing workforce, the society and the entire health sector. Power is highly dependent on an individual’s knowledge, expertise, ability to serve and positively influence those he/she leads. The interviewee was clear that, highly effective leaders use power in a more subtle and careful way to promote clinical performance and health outcomes. Thus, a leader should be able to guide others without staff micro-management. Professional Identity and Stewardship Part I

Personal Impression on Peer Responses

The interviewee had adequately internalized the perspectives and core values acknowledged as vital to nursing practice. These values were self-evident in the peer’s description of professionalism and articulation of her roles as a member of the healthcare team. She embraced her essential values in all aspects of nursing practice to improve the health outcomes of patients and uphold the ethics of the nursing profession. Key to this outcome as expressed is a nurse’s dedication to good leadership and advocacy for quality and accessible care to all for the sustainability and growth of nursing.

References

Ulrich, B., & Kear, T. (2014). Patient safety culture in nephrology nurse practice settings: Initial findings. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41(5), 459-475.

Wong, C. A. (2015). Connecting nursing leadership and patient outcomes: state of the science. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(3), 275-278.

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Professional Identity and Stewardship Part I