Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
Concept Concept Learning Outcomes/Number of Items
# of Questions on Midterm Exam 50
(Note: Some items might relate to more than one outcome).
Theoretical links: page 380-81 in giddens
Professio
Maria & Josselson: they note that identity issues first arise in late adolescence when
nalism society and adolescents expect beliefs and vision for future career goals will start to form. For the
(13 adolescent and growing young adult, this occurs within an environment of exploration and
question commitment. It is manifested through four identity statuses: identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium,
s) and identity achieved.
● Identity diffusion: lack of interest in commitment and exploration. “Whatever seems
good at the moment.”
● Foreclosure: the person keeps talking about changing those around him or her and
conspicuously not about making change him- or herself
● Moratorium: overwhelming anxiety that is “hard to sit through” with someone.
● Identity achieved: the person is reasonably self-aware, has a sense of self, and can
manage overwhelming anxiety should it occur.
Crigger and Godfrey work with a stair step model of professional transformation for
nursing visually represents the dynamism in professional identity formation.
Bandura's social learning theory, in which learning occurs through observations of others
Mezirow's transformational learning theory, in which growth and development are outcomes of
transformational learning when sufficient levels of cognitive functioning are present
1|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
1. Explain the concept of Professionalism (including definition, antecedents and attributes).
Professionalism definition: the assimilation of nursing skills and knowledge integrated with dignity and
respect for all human beings incorporating the assumptions and values of the profession while
maintaining accountability and self-awareness.
Antecedents: (what needs to occur first…)
● Self awareness
● Personal values
● Professional values
● Ethical values
● Nursing social contract
● Communication
● Skills & knowledge
● Ethical values
● High level of integrity
Attributes: (a quality or characteristic that is associated with the concept that helps to clarify or confirm
the concept)
● Competence
● Patient focused, clear & accurate communication
● Critical thinking
● Accountability
● Responsibility
● Lifelong learning
● Caring
● Advocacy
● Teaching
2. Explain the attributes of the profession as they relate to the concept of Professionalism
(antecedents, consequences, sub-concepts and interrelated concepts). Page 389-90 in
giddens
Doing: skill orientation, how one functions as a part of a group. In the early stages of any new
role, there is usually a strong focus on external expectations & tasks of the “doing”.
Being: explains what it means to do the right thing even when no one is looking
Acting ethically: to live according to your principles. Being attentive to what is considered
right and good from both societal and a professional perspective.
● Example: It is not right to accept a date from a pt who is in your care in the hospital. Nor is it
ethical to tell your family members details about a pt’s condition.
2|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
Flourishing: sense of positive and transformational growth.
Changing identities: each time a new identity emerges, a reworking of the person’s
identity occurs in order to resolve this new developmental issue.
3. Identify the source and importance of nursing standards that guide competency (skills and
knowledge) to provide safe patient care.
(1) forming and fostering professional identity, (2) an interprofessional perspective on professional identity and
professional identity formation, and (3) interventions to achieve professional identity formation.
Professional identity was greatest in students with:
● cognitive flexibility (able to structure knowledge)
● previous work experience in these environments
● better understanding of teamwork
● a greater knowledge of their own profession.
• Hear expectations clearly: nursing education programs are highly complex and may seem
difficult to understand. Listen carefully to expectations and advice for success.
• Value debriefing and feedback from role models: role modeling is critically
important in learning a profession. The most important component of the educational process as
the “supportive yet challenging relationship” the learner has with the faculty member or mentor.
• Engage in reflection: Sometimes the reflection will be guided, through assignments in and
outside of class; other times, reflection will be expected to be spontaneous, such as in post
conferences following clinical. Reflection is a time to internalize what is occurring with the patient
and family and also what is happening and changing one's own perspective.
• Actively adopt a professional identity: Adopting a clear sense of professional identity
that includes growing understanding of how integrity, compassion, courage, humility, advocacy, and
human flourishing fit within the identity of nursing will in turn clarify the nurse's purposes as he or
she relates to patients, families, and health care colleagues
• Understand your own responsibilities for learning and be accountable
for them: People's beliefs in their ability to influence events that affect their lives is known as
self-efficacy. Your ability to recognize your potential to grow and flourish will help propel you to
greater personal and professional levels of self-efficacy.
• Build relationships with those around you: students need authentic experiences on which to
reflect and active engagement that employs collaborative learning from practice environment.
• Develop personal self-care habits: Caring for oneself is a key component of solidly developing a
professional identity—in any field.
3|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
• Embrace any opportunity for experiences with patients: both real and
simulated unique experiences with patients are valuable in forming professional identity
4. Explain the relationship between in-patient satisfaction survey results and patient focused
communication.
5. Apply critical thinking to determine the similarities and differences between accountability,
responsibility, and caring.
6. Discuss the challenges faced by nurses who embrace patient
7. Compare and contrast elements of patient focused communication (language, culture, family
traditions) with the nurse’s commitment to lifelong learning and patient teaching on patient
outcome.
8. Discuss outcomes accompanying a lack of attributes in the nursing profession as evaluated
by stakeholders.
9. Apply the concept of Professionalism to selected situations.
Integrity- the nurse will do what she says she will do & acts with consistency &
purpose
• Following through with pain medication
• Calling the physician when the patient asks you to
• Checking the Code Cart by the prescribed time
• Giving medications within the 30-minute window
Compassion- not to be confused with sympathy or empathy, compassion is feeling
what another is feeling & responding to it with the intent of doing something to help.
• Taking time to talk with a troubled family member
• Responding to a patient's call light with genuine interest
• Comforting a colleague who has just had a death in his or her family
• Using eye contact to apologize for a misstep with a colleague
Courage- either physical or moral. Ex. the nurse who put herself between the pt &
falling debris from a tornado demonstrated physical courage.
• Speaking up when a colleague did not wash his or her hands before entering a patient room
• Conveying the details of the conversation a dying patient had with you to other members of the health care
team
• Taking practice issues to the practice council to positively change practice on your nursing unit
• Speaking out about bullying occurring on the nursing unit
Humility- “like a buoy that rides the waves of disappointments & accomplishments.”
Taking neither an overstated amount of credit nor blame for a particular situation.
• Realistically viewing family members' ability to cope with a crisis
• Being nonjudgmental as staff deal with a unit-based crisis
• Clearly identifying your part in an error and not accepting more blame than is yours
• Seeing the larger picture when issues arise with patients, families, and coworkers
4|Page
Concept Concept Learning Outcomes/Number of Items
# of Questions on Midterm Exam 50
(Note: Some items might relate to more than one outcome).
Theoretical links: page 380-81 in giddens
Professio
Maria & Josselson: they note that identity issues first arise in late adolescence when
nalism society and adolescents expect beliefs and vision for future career goals will start to form. For the
(13 adolescent and growing young adult, this occurs within an environment of exploration and
question commitment. It is manifested through four identity statuses: identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium,
s) and identity achieved.
● Identity diffusion: lack of interest in commitment and exploration. “Whatever seems
good at the moment.”
● Foreclosure: the person keeps talking about changing those around him or her and
conspicuously not about making change him- or herself
● Moratorium: overwhelming anxiety that is “hard to sit through” with someone.
● Identity achieved: the person is reasonably self-aware, has a sense of self, and can
manage overwhelming anxiety should it occur.
Crigger and Godfrey work with a stair step model of professional transformation for
nursing visually represents the dynamism in professional identity formation.
Bandura's social learning theory, in which learning occurs through observations of others
Mezirow's transformational learning theory, in which growth and development are outcomes of
transformational learning when sufficient levels of cognitive functioning are present
1|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
1. Explain the concept of Professionalism (including definition, antecedents and attributes).
Professionalism definition: the assimilation of nursing skills and knowledge integrated with dignity and
respect for all human beings incorporating the assumptions and values of the profession while
maintaining accountability and self-awareness.
Antecedents: (what needs to occur first…)
● Self awareness
● Personal values
● Professional values
● Ethical values
● Nursing social contract
● Communication
● Skills & knowledge
● Ethical values
● High level of integrity
Attributes: (a quality or characteristic that is associated with the concept that helps to clarify or confirm
the concept)
● Competence
● Patient focused, clear & accurate communication
● Critical thinking
● Accountability
● Responsibility
● Lifelong learning
● Caring
● Advocacy
● Teaching
2. Explain the attributes of the profession as they relate to the concept of Professionalism
(antecedents, consequences, sub-concepts and interrelated concepts). Page 389-90 in
giddens
Doing: skill orientation, how one functions as a part of a group. In the early stages of any new
role, there is usually a strong focus on external expectations & tasks of the “doing”.
Being: explains what it means to do the right thing even when no one is looking
Acting ethically: to live according to your principles. Being attentive to what is considered
right and good from both societal and a professional perspective.
● Example: It is not right to accept a date from a pt who is in your care in the hospital. Nor is it
ethical to tell your family members details about a pt’s condition.
2|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
Flourishing: sense of positive and transformational growth.
Changing identities: each time a new identity emerges, a reworking of the person’s
identity occurs in order to resolve this new developmental issue.
3. Identify the source and importance of nursing standards that guide competency (skills and
knowledge) to provide safe patient care.
(1) forming and fostering professional identity, (2) an interprofessional perspective on professional identity and
professional identity formation, and (3) interventions to achieve professional identity formation.
Professional identity was greatest in students with:
● cognitive flexibility (able to structure knowledge)
● previous work experience in these environments
● better understanding of teamwork
● a greater knowledge of their own profession.
• Hear expectations clearly: nursing education programs are highly complex and may seem
difficult to understand. Listen carefully to expectations and advice for success.
• Value debriefing and feedback from role models: role modeling is critically
important in learning a profession. The most important component of the educational process as
the “supportive yet challenging relationship” the learner has with the faculty member or mentor.
• Engage in reflection: Sometimes the reflection will be guided, through assignments in and
outside of class; other times, reflection will be expected to be spontaneous, such as in post
conferences following clinical. Reflection is a time to internalize what is occurring with the patient
and family and also what is happening and changing one's own perspective.
• Actively adopt a professional identity: Adopting a clear sense of professional identity
that includes growing understanding of how integrity, compassion, courage, humility, advocacy, and
human flourishing fit within the identity of nursing will in turn clarify the nurse's purposes as he or
she relates to patients, families, and health care colleagues
• Understand your own responsibilities for learning and be accountable
for them: People's beliefs in their ability to influence events that affect their lives is known as
self-efficacy. Your ability to recognize your potential to grow and flourish will help propel you to
greater personal and professional levels of self-efficacy.
• Build relationships with those around you: students need authentic experiences on which to
reflect and active engagement that employs collaborative learning from practice environment.
• Develop personal self-care habits: Caring for oneself is a key component of solidly developing a
professional identity—in any field.
3|Page
, Midterm/Final Exam Study Guide RNSG 1125
• Embrace any opportunity for experiences with patients: both real and
simulated unique experiences with patients are valuable in forming professional identity
4. Explain the relationship between in-patient satisfaction survey results and patient focused
communication.
5. Apply critical thinking to determine the similarities and differences between accountability,
responsibility, and caring.
6. Discuss the challenges faced by nurses who embrace patient
7. Compare and contrast elements of patient focused communication (language, culture, family
traditions) with the nurse’s commitment to lifelong learning and patient teaching on patient
outcome.
8. Discuss outcomes accompanying a lack of attributes in the nursing profession as evaluated
by stakeholders.
9. Apply the concept of Professionalism to selected situations.
Integrity- the nurse will do what she says she will do & acts with consistency &
purpose
• Following through with pain medication
• Calling the physician when the patient asks you to
• Checking the Code Cart by the prescribed time
• Giving medications within the 30-minute window
Compassion- not to be confused with sympathy or empathy, compassion is feeling
what another is feeling & responding to it with the intent of doing something to help.
• Taking time to talk with a troubled family member
• Responding to a patient's call light with genuine interest
• Comforting a colleague who has just had a death in his or her family
• Using eye contact to apologize for a misstep with a colleague
Courage- either physical or moral. Ex. the nurse who put herself between the pt &
falling debris from a tornado demonstrated physical courage.
• Speaking up when a colleague did not wash his or her hands before entering a patient room
• Conveying the details of the conversation a dying patient had with you to other members of the health care
team
• Taking practice issues to the practice council to positively change practice on your nursing unit
• Speaking out about bullying occurring on the nursing unit
Humility- “like a buoy that rides the waves of disappointments & accomplishments.”
Taking neither an overstated amount of credit nor blame for a particular situation.
• Realistically viewing family members' ability to cope with a crisis
• Being nonjudgmental as staff deal with a unit-based crisis
• Clearly identifying your part in an error and not accepting more blame than is yours
• Seeing the larger picture when issues arise with patients, families, and coworkers
4|Page
