DIMENSIONS OF NURSING EXAM 1 study guide

DIMENSIONS OF NURSING EXAM 1 CONCEPTS Dimensions Concept Guide Exam #1 (Modules 1-3) 1. Advance Practice Nurses (Chapter 1) 2. Well-Organized and Strong Representation (Chapter 1) 3. Approaches to Defining a Profession (Chapter 1) 4. Trait Approach (Chapter 1) 5. Origin of Power (Chapter 1) 6. The Sanctity of Life (Chapter 2) 7. The Father of Medicine (Chapter 2) 8. The Evolution of Symbols of Nursing (Chapter 2) 9. Nursing Leaders (Chapter 2) 10. Florence Nightingale A Health-care Reformer (Chapter 2) 11. Interprofessional Education (Chapter 4) 12. Case Management (Chapter 4) 13. The Importance of Technique (Chapter 4) 14. Converting the Curriculum (Chapter 4) 15. QSEN Competencies Guide for Nursing Curriculum (Chapter 4) 16. Nursing Organizations and Their Importance (Chapter 5) 17. The ANA (Chapter 5) 18. Grassroot Organizations (Chapter 5) 19. Capitated Payment Systems (Chapter 14) 20. Demographics Affecting Health-care Delivery (Chapter 14) 21. Health-care Systems in the U.S. (Chapter 14) 22. Health-care Level and Settings (Chapter 14) 23. Independent Nurse-Run Health Centers (Chapter 14) 24. Levels of Service (Chapter 14) 25. Table 14.1 (Chapter 14) 26. Box 14.4 (Chapter 14) 27. What is Civility? (Chapter 17) 28. Communication and Civility (Chapter 17) 29. Stop the Spiral (Chapter 17) 30. Bullying (Chapter 17) 31. Workplace Violence (Chapter 17) 32. Lateral Violence (Chapter 17) 33. Ethical Prohibitions to Incivility (Chapter 17) 34. Mentoring (Chapter 17) 35. Incivility in Nursing Education (Chapter 17) 36. Don?t Eat Your Young (Chapter 17) ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSES CHAPTER 1 For individuals who are unfamiliar with the health-care delivery system, it is sometimes difficult to understand the similarities and differences between nursing titles and roles. This confusion is particularly evident in the case of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) and nurse practitioners (NPs), who are sometimes collectively referred to as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). WELL-ORGANAZIED AND STRONG REPRESENTATION CHAPTER 1 Professional organizations represent the members of the profession and control the quality of professional practice. The National League for Nursing (NLN) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) are the two major national organizations that represent nursing in today's health-care system. The NLN is primarily responsible for regulating the quality of the educational programs that prepare nurses for the practice of nursing, whereas the ANA is more concerned with the quality of nursing practice in the daily health-care setting. Both these groups are well organized, but neither can be considered powerful when compared with other professional organizations, such as the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association (AMA), or the American Bar Association (ABA). One reason for their lack of strength is that fewer than 10 percent of all nurses in the United States are members of any professional organization at the national level. Many nurses do belong to specialty organizations that represent a specific area of practice, but these lack sufficient political power to produce changes in health-care laws and policies at the national level. APPROACHES TO DEFINING A PROFESSION CHAPTER 1 In common use, terms such as position, job, occupation, profession, professional, and professionalism often are used interchangeably and incorrectly. The following definitions will clarify what is meant by these terms within this text:  Position: A group of tasks assigned to one individual  Job: A group of positions similar in nature and level of skill that can be carried out by one or more individuals  Occupation: A group of jobs similar in type of work that are usually found throughout an industry or work environment  Profession: A type of occupation that requires prolonged preparation and formal qualifications and meets certain higher level criteria (discussed later in this chapter) that raise it to a level above that of an occupation  Professional: A person who belongs to and practices a profession (The term professional is probably the most misused of all these terms when describing people who are clearly involved in jobs or occupations, such as a “professional truck driver,” “professional football player,” or even “professional thief.”)  Professionalism: The demonstration of high-level personal, ethical, and skill characteristics of a member of a profession. PROCESS APPROACH The process approach views all occupations as points of development into a profession situated along a continuum ranging from position to profession: Using this approach, the question becomes not whether nursing and truck driving are professions but where they are located along the continuum. Occupations such as medicine, law, and the ministry are widely accepted by the public as being closest to the professional end of the continuum.3 Other occupations may be less clearly defined. The major difficulty with this approach is that it lacks criteria on which to base judgments. Final determination of the status of an occupation or profession depends almost completely on public perception of the activities of that occupation. Nursing has always had a rather negative public image when it comes to being viewed as a profession. POWER APPROACH The power approach uses two criteria to define a profession: 1. How much independence of practice does this occupation have? 2. How much power does this occupation control? Using this determinant, occupations such as medicine, law, and politics clearly would be considered professions. The members of these occupations earn high incomes, practice their skills with a great deal of independence; and exercise significant power over individuals, the public, and the political community, both individually and in organized groups. The ministry is generally perceived as having power and influence. However, most people in this group, except for a few individuals such as television evangelists, have relatively low income levels. Nursing, of course, with its comparatively lower salaries, low membership in professional organizations, and perceived lack of political power, would clearly not meet the power criteria for a profession.