Running head: PROFESSIONALISM

Professionalism:
Honor Among Degrees
Jack L. Kaczmarczyk
Baker College

Definition of Professionalism
Of all the qualities that a newly graduated nurse should thoroughly internalize, the most
valuable is perhaps the most difficult to teach: professionalism. Valuable to the nursing
profession, to co-workers, and to patients, professionalism broadly defined is dedication to
excellence in pursuit of nursing and respect for peer and patient. The need for professionalism is
felt most keenly when faced with a situation in which there is a lack. One can hardly throw a
rock without hitting a former patient whose medical treatment might have been effective, but the
nursing staff all seemed to be auditioning for the Wicked Witch of the West. Unfortunately, it
does not spare colleagues. One can hardly eavesdrop for five minutes in a break-room without
overhearing people complain about a co-workers unacceptable conductor worse, without
overhearing such bad conduct demonstrated. Such unprofessional behavior has only one use:
antithetically defining, like the shadows in chiaroscuro define objects, just how a professional

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should act and, when it is especially harmful, effectively making the case for the promotion of
professionalism.
A few words will suffice to positively identify what is meant by a nurses professional
identity. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project lists six areas of
competency: quality improvement, safety, patient-centered care, informatics, evidence-based
practice, and teamwork and collaboration (Hensel, 2014). To the degree that a nurse meets these
competencies is causally related to the degree that nurse is a professional. Clickner and Shirey
(2013) would add another necessary quality: comportment, or a dignified manner in the
absence of which a culture of incivility, nurse aggression, and compromised patient safety will
emerge, (p. 106).
Sadly, a lack of comportment is on the rise, and this occurs in the most visible of the
previously mentioned areas of competency: patient-centered care and teamwork. Evidence in the
literature has pointed to the increased incidence of bullying behavior, affecting both patient-nurse
relationships and laterally from nurse to nurse (Shepard, 2013). Unfortunate, indeed, is this trend,
though not surprising; nurses may have a code of ethics, but so, too, has the rest of humanity
been gifted with several, in one form or another, and compliance with the Golden Rule in
particular has not recently enjoyed an all-time-high.
Unprofessionalism is especially troubling when considering how far nursing has come as
a profession. With no small amount of pride, one traces the lineage from medieval monks
applying poultices, to Florence Nightingale, to the cutting-edge and multi-specialized workforce
of today. Nurses are behind improved technology, bettered patient education, and the
development of a unique repertoire of interventions. Has a zenith been reached, then, and
henceforth we are to expect decline and fall? Does this height of RN licensure explain the nurse
bully? The literature, here, offers relatively scant suggestions besides the expected mention of a
failure to engender a culture of professionalism.

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A less-popular explanation points to fallen human nature. A study done to gauge nursing
students professionalism found that the degree to which it was internalized was variable; it could
not be determined whether nursing school helped, or if the attitudes, reflected perceptions
students already held, (Hensel, 2014, p. 130). Naturesomething that is inured to the effect of
conferences, programs, or initiativesis to blame for bullies. This raises doubt as to whether a
nursing program can nurture professionalism. At the least, a nursing program screens out the
malingerers. If a student is incapable of meeting the competencies related to professionalism,
little room is left for wiggling. Instructors cannot allow it in the clinical environment. Hospital
administration cannot allow it, and malingerers only persist in practice to the extent that their
deeds are obscured, or tacitly accepted.
Therefore nowhere in any circumstance should unprofessional behavior be tolerated.
Conversely, as much as possible, at all times and in every situation should professionalism be
promoted. No longer can a neutral attitude be adopted. Doing nothing about it puts the profession
at risk and, most important above all, puts the patient at risk.

References

PROFESSIONALISM
Clickner, D. A., & Shirey, M. R. (2013). Professional Comportment: The Missing Element in
Nursing Practice. Nursing Forum, 48(2), 106-113. doi:10.1111/nuf.12014
Hensel, D. (2014). Typologies of Professional Identity Among Graduating BaccalaureatePrepared Nurses. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 46(2), 125-133.
doi:10.1111/jnu.12052
Shepard, L. H. (2013). It Takes a Village to Assure Nursing Professionalism. Journal On
Nursing, 3(4), 1-5.