The Power of a Professional Image

The Gallop Poll rates 11 professions annually, based on the public’s perception of the honesty and ethical standards of the profession.  With the exception of 2001 when firefighters were recognized for their fearless and remarkable efforts during and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is important for nurses to be recognized as a nurse in the agency where they practice.

Nurses demonstrate a sense of pride in their profession when they portray a professional image to the public. Patients state that it is important for them to be able to recognize the nurse when they are receiving health care.  Nurses are leaders, it is important that we recognize the image we portray in our clinical practice and reflect on how well our personal image reflects our education and knowledge.

 

Assignment Objectives 

  • Evaluate and reflect on your personal image of professionalism (Course Objectives 4, 5 and Student Learning Objectives 1, 2, 6, 8)
  • Create and discuss changes that can be made by you and other nurses to improve the perception of nursing by the public and patients (Course Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4 and Student Learning Objectives 1, 3, 6, 8)

Read:

  1. Text Murray, Chapters 16,17
  2. Penn Medicine News.(2015)The Professional Image of Nursing (Links to an external site.). retrieved at https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2015/october/the-professional-image-of-nurs
  3. Ozakgul, A., Asti , T., Karabay, B., Emir, E., &  Temeller, N. (2017).  (Links to an external site.)What are the factors that affect the image of the nursing profession in Turkish high school students? Clinical Medicine. 3(4) (Links to an external site.). https://www.clinmedjournals.org/articles/ianhc/international-archives-of-nursing-and-health-care-ianhc-3-085.php?jid=ianhc
  4. Nevada State College.(2018). The importance of your image as a nurse.  https://online.nsc.edu/articles/rn-bsn/importance-of-your-nurse-image.aspx  (Links to an external site.)

Paton, F. (2020). Uplifting the image of nursing: Six ways you can help (Links to an external site.). Nurse Labs.  https://nurseslabs.com/uplifting-image-nurses-6-ways-can-help/ (Links to an external site.)