Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety

Describe how the nursing profession is viewed by the general public.

The general public views on nursing profession is varied and incoherent as it does not evaluate the profession through its innovative evolutions and education, and remains mostly unaware of the established theories that define modern nursing. Rather, the general public views the nursing profession in terms of the portion of nursing tasks and practice requirements that they come into contact with. In fact, many members of the public believe that the profession is defined by empathy skills. This shows that the public largely ignores the specific training and competences that nurses require for professional practice. Still, the larger portion of the general public do not view nursing as an independent profession, but instead views it as a profession that is hierarchical subordinate to physicians since nurses tend to accept the authority of physicians (Murray, 2022)Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety.

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Discuss factors that influence the public’s perception of nursing.

It is evident that the public perception of nursing limits the visibility and influence of the profession. First, role confusion as the general public is unclear about the exact roles of nurses. Most of the public is only aware of the nursing roles that they come into contact with as well as the empathy aspect of nursing while ignoring the unique nature of nursing as defined by the modern theories. Second, lack of confidence among nurses presents them as unsure about their roles thus consolidating the public perception that nurses are not confident about their clinical practice. In addition, the lack of confidence among nurses causes the general public to lack confidence in nurses ability to provide quality patient care, especially in today’s health care complex environment. Third, fear among the nurses, especially when facing new situations. Fourth, a sense of inferiority among nurses that causes them to perceive physicians as having greater authority. This makes the public to view nurses as being subordinate to physicians, and not a unique profession. Fifth, hierarchical structures of health care organizations present nurses as subordinate to physicians. Sixth, policies that require nurses to be supervised by physicians causes the public to view them as being subordinate to physicians (Rubbi et al., 2017)Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety.

Describe ways to educate the general public on the professional nurse’s role and scope of nursing within a changing health care system.

There is a need to eliminate the factors that limit the visibility and influence of nursing. This begins with getting nurses to understand the image the nursing profession seeks to convey, how the image falls short of what is intended, and how they can improve the image. This includes addressing role confusion, improving confidence, addressing the sense of inferiority, restructuring hierarchical structures to present nurses as independent professionals, and changing policies to recognize nursing as an independent profession. In addition, there is a need to engage in branding activities while presenting a strong brand message that promotes the nursing profession in a manner consistent with the desired image. The branding would be most effect when nurses agree on a set of shared values with a clear strategy of how to achieve and maintain the values. These shared values would help in fostering loyalty and commitment among nurses, while facilitating a better understanding of the nursing brand that would then be delivered consistently to the public as a unique brand message (Godsey, Houghton & Hayes, 2020)Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety.

References

Godsey, J. A., Houghton, D. M., & Hayes, T. (2020). Registered nurse perceptions of factors contributing to the inconsistent brand image of the nursing profession. Nurs. Outlook, 68(6), 808-821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.06.005

Murray, E. (2022). Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety and Quality Care (2nd ed.). F.A. Davis Company.

Rubbi, I., Cremonini, V., Artiolo, G., Lenzini, A., Talenti, I., Caponnetto, V., … & Lancia, L. (2017). The public perception of nurses. An Italian cross-sectional study. Acta Biomedica, 88(Suppl. 5), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v88i5-S.6884

Nursing Leadership and Management for Patient Safety