Nursing Professional Behaviors (Research Paper Sample)

Nursing Professional Accountability and Responsibility Self-Awareness Assessment

The level of trust placed on nursing as a profession is high. The implications of this high level of trust for practicing and student nurses require that they be accountable for their practice, prioritize patient safety, promote professionalism and trust, and above all practice effectively. There are several ways through which the nursing practice ensures that the standards of accountability and responsibility are kept high such as ensuring its emphasized in nurse training curricula, providing a nursing code that outlines the professional standards that all nurses must uphold, and conducting regular self-assessments which will be the focus of this paper.

This self-assessment will be structured into two sections. The first section of the body will define key concepts that will be used in this paper. The concepts to be defined are self-awareness and self-leadership, values, professional behaviors, professional responsibility, and accountability. The concepts will be related to the role of a student and a practicing nurse and discussed in the context of the nursing and Midwifery Council Code for 2018. The second section will be reflective. It will discuss the results from a self-awareness questionnaire previously filled. It will be a reflection on my leadership style based on the outcome of a leadership questionnaire completed in class. Finally, it will develop an action plan based on the SMART goals model to address identified areas of opportunity to improve self-awareness and self-leadership.
Accountability is needed in all facets of life and most relationships. The patient-nurse relationship is constantly evolving as a result of the growing healthcare needs of patients characterized by complex disease processes and patients who are living longer with chronic illnesses (Davis, 2017). Self-assessment has been used as a tool for measuring accountability both for practicing and nursing students. It is commonly used in nursing practice, particularly for nursing students (Kajander-Unkuri et al., 2016; Jaensson et al., 2018). Furthermore, for nursing students, it is instrumental in identifying their strengths and weaknesses and aids in setting appropriate learning goals (Kajander-Unkuri et al., 2016).
Professional Responsibility and Accountability
According to Battié and Steelman, accountability is the key to increasing trust, reducing fear, and improving morale and performance, and should be the basis for establishing a culture of trust, support, and dedication to excellence (2014; 11). These aspects of accountability by Battie and Steelman adequately capture the benefits of accountability for the student nurse as well as for the practicing nurse. Professional responsibility and accountability as applied to nursing are comprehensively defined by Krautscheid as it factors in definitions by nursing education credentials agencies, professional nursing organizations, and several scholars who have researched the concept. He defines professional nursing accountability as, “taking responsibility for one’s nursing judgments, actions, and omissions as they relate to life-long learning, maintaining competency, and upholding both quality patient care outcomes and standards of the profession while being answerable to those who are influenced by one’s nursing practice” (Krautscheid, 2014: 46)
The National Midwifery Council (NMC) 2018 code reiterates the need for accountability through its series of statements that outline what good practice for nurses should resemble. It is not just clearly stated in code 11, “be accountable for your decisions to delegate tasks and duties to other peoples” (The Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2018) but also throughout the other codes under the four action statements. The need for accountability as expressed in the NMC codes is not only relevant to practicing nurses but also to student nurses as it is the ideal nursing standard they should aspire towards.
Professional Behaviors
Professional behavior in nursing and all it entails is best captured in the different nursing codes that govern nursing practice in varying jurisdictions such as the NMC 2018 Code. Scholars have attempted to define these codes of professions as respecting the values, beliefs, and dignity of patients without losing patient trust while making informed decisions, maintaining standards of activities, providing competent and safe care, working harmoniously with the law in action, and presenting the image of nursing (Ghadirian, Salsali, and Cheraghi, 2014). Professional behavior is relevant in that it outlines the expected conduct for a student nurse and a future practicing nurse is expected to follow serving as both a practice and nurse training guide. It also sets a consistent standard for safe health care providers with person-centered outcomes which in turn supports people, families, and careers to attain the optimal status of health and well-being (Nursing and Midwifery Council, n.d.).