Social Context of Professional Nursing

Chapter 5 Social Context of Professional Nursing Nursing’s Social Contract • Society provides the nursing profession with the authority to practice • Society grants the profession authority over functions and autonomy over professional affairs • Profession expected to regulate itself and act responsibly • This relationship is the essence of the nursing’s social contract with society Public Image of Nursing (1 of 2) • Actions to promote the real image:

– Educate the public – Describe nurses’ work – Make known the agency of the registered nurse (RN) – Deal with the fear of angering the physician – Accept thanks from others – Be ready to take advantage of openings to promote nursing – Respond to queries with real stories Public Image of Nursing (2 of 2) • Actions to promote the real image: – Tell the details – Avoid using nursing jargon – Prepare ahead of time to tell your story – Do not suppress your enthusiasm – Reflect the nurse’s clinical judgment and competency – Connect work to contemporary issues – Respect patient’s confidentiality – Deal with the fear of failure The Gender Gap • Women in nursing: • Men in nursing: – Avoidance of conflict – Leadership advantage – Multiple roles – Compensation discrepancy – Centeredness on service – Gender bias Changing Demographics and Cultural Competence • Discrepancy between minority population and minority health professionals and faculties • Increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in the health professions and improving the cultural competency of providers are key strategies for reducing health disparities Access to Health Care • Continuity of care – Routine care with provider leads to better health outcomes • Economic barriers – Poverty poses the greatest risk to health • Geographic barriers – Rural and urban • Sociocultural barriers Societal Trends • Incivility • Consumerism • Violence in the workplace • Complementary and alternative approaches • Global aging • Disaster preparedness Trends in Nursing • Nurse shortage • Nurse faculty shortage • Nursing practice and workplace environment • Nurse retention • Complexity of nursing work • Nursing education Closing the Education and Practice Gap Social Context of Professional Nursing

• Key messages of The Future of Nursing include: – Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training – Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression – Nurses should be full partners, with physicians and other health professions, in redesigning health care in the US – Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure Recommendations from The Future of Nursing (1 of 2) • Remove scope-of-practice barriers • Expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts • Implement nurse residency programs • Increase the percentage of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80% by 2020 • Double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020 Recommendations from The Future of Nursing (2 of 2) • Ensure that nurses engage in lifelong learning • Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health • Build an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of interprofessional healthcare workforce data The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action Video https://youtu.be/V_PnaXjVn2c … Social Context of Professional Nursing