The significance of nursing education defines what a professional is, what the barriers are and facilitators are to professionalism, the history and significance of BSN education, media image of nursing, as well as touches on important organizations and publications that support nursing.

1. SIGNIFICANCE OF NURSING
EDUCATION
KORRINA PORTER RN, RN-BC
CASTLETON UNIVERSITY

2. PROFESSIONALISM IN NURSING
Hall’s Professional Model
1.) Use of a professional organization as a primary point of
reference
2.) Belief in the value of public service
3.) Belief in self regulation
4.) Commitment to a profession that goes beyond
economic incentive
5.) A sense of autonomy in practice
(Black, 2017, p.53).
Profession-
“A calling, vocation, or form of employment that provides a needed service to society and possesses
characteristics of expertise, autonomy, long academic preparation, commitment, and responsibility” (Black, 2017).

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF NURSING
 Prolonged specialized training in a body of abstract knowledge
 A service orientation
 An ethic that is binding on the practitioners
 A body of knowledge unique to the members
 A set of skills that forms the technique of the profession
 A guild of those entitled to practice the profession
 Authority granted by society in the form of licensure or certification
 A recognized setting in which the profession is practiced
 A theory of societal benefits derived from the ideology
Agreed upon criteria by multiple scholars of a professional: Service/altruism, specialized
knowledge, and autonomy/ethics (Black, 2017, p.53).

4. BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONALISM
• Varying Levels of Education- Not all nurses start at the same entry level. Most RN’s
have less then the required bachelor’s degree which is the entry level to most
professions outside of nursing. There is a lack for a standardization of the
requirements for the minimum BSN and holding an MSN is preferred (Black, 2017, p.
59-60).
• Gender Issues- Nursing is still perceived as “women's work in today’s society”
(Black, 2017, p. 60). This plays a huge part in the continued development of
professionalism. Although the percentage of men working in nursing is increasing, the
percentage of men is still under represented. The majority of men working in the
nursing field are advanced practice certified registered nurse anesthetists, and re under
represented in other positions such as faculty positions (Black, 2017, p.2).

5. • Historical Influences- Nurses have always been seen as caregivers who follow orders
from a physician. Being that nursing developed during war and has a strong religious
background, this makes it hard to break away from this perception of how nurses
should behave/conduct with fellow more educated colleagues such as doctors,
managers and stakeholders. It creates barriers for nurses to move forward with critical
thinking, or compensation for hard work and commitment because they go against the
professional values that nurses try to uphold such as autonomy, altruism, and self
determination (Black, 2017, p. 60).
• Internal & External Conflicts- There is an increase of nurses with higher levels of
education which in turns leads to advanced practice nursing and a greater
responsibility to patients. This in turn challenges the RN scope of practice and limits
nurses ability legally in what they can do for patients. Also, the tension between
nurses at different educational levels plays a big role in what is professional as the
way one conducts with other professionals should be respectful and collaborative.
BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONALISM CONT.

6. FACILITATORS TO PROFESSIONALISM
• Kelly’s Criteria- A substantial influence in nursing was Lucie Kelly RN, PhD,
FAAN, who established a set of criteria consisting of the 8 characteristics
believed to be embodied by a professional.
• Miller’s Wheel of Professionalism in Nursing
• Nursing’s Social Policy Statement: The Essence of the Profession
• Nursing: Scope and Standard of Practice
• The Code of Ethics for Nurses

7. COLLEGIALITY IN PROFESSIONAL NURSING
 “The promotion of a supportive and healthy work environment,
cooperation, and recognition of interdependence among members of the
nursing profession” (Black, 2017, p.59).
 If nurses could be collegial to their co-workers and foster a learning
environment that is caring and compassionate for new nurses/student the
nursing profession as a whole can benefit from it as well as achieving
better patient care/outcomes.

8. KELLY CRITERIA CHARACTERISTICS (1-4)
1. “The services provided are vital to humanity and the welfare of society.”
• Caring and nursing intervention are the core of this characteristic.
2. “There is a specific body of knowledge that is continually enlarged through
research.”
• Research plays a key part in the on going development and advancement of the nursing
profession. This is continuously being seen through the implementation of Evidence-based
practice.
3. “The services involve intellectual activities; individual responsibility is a
strong feature.”
• Key points: Critical thinking skills and following the Code of Ethics for Nurses (ANA).
4. “Practitioners are educated in institutions of higher learning.”
• According to the ANA, all nursing education should be obtained at a higher institution of
education. Currently the most common entry level nurse only has an associates degree, but
society is slowly transitioning to requiring a BSN before practicing.

9. KELLY CRITERIA CHARACTERISTIC (5-8)
5. “Practitioners are relatively independent and control their own policies and
activities.”
• Nurses remain autonomous in their practice but have constrains due to the scope of practice
being limited by employers and physicians.
• 3 major groups that influence nursing autonomy: Organized nursing (NNU), organized
medicine, and health service administration.
• ANCC and the Magnet Recognition Program.
6. “Practitioners are motivated by service and consider their work an important
component of their lives.”
• Altruism- Unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others (Merriam-Webster, n.d).
7. “There is a code of ethics to guide the decisions and conduct of practitioners.”
8. “There is an organization that encourages and supports high standards of practice.”

10. MILLER’S WHEEL OF PROFESSIONALISM IN NURSING
Community
service orientation
Research:
Development;
use;evaluation
Professionalism
Education in
University
setting and
scientific
background in
nursing
Adherenceto
codefornurses
Professional
organization
participation
Series 1- Each of the eight legs
represents the behaviors that are
associated with nurses increase and
maintenance of professionalism
(Black, 2017, p.58).

11. INFLUENCES IN BACCALAUREATE EDUCATION
The first BSN program was first established in 1909 at the University of Minnesota
and followed a 3 year diploma program structure.
By 1919, there were 7 BSN programs established and students were required to
complete 5 years of education to earn a degree: 3 years nursing, 2 years liberal arts.
The lack of acceptance of nursing as an academic discipline hindered the grown of
the BSN program.
Hospital based Diploma Programs only took 3 years as opposed to the 5 years it
would take to receive a degree, making it harder to increase the popularity of BSN
programs based on the hand on clinical portion of hospital based programs (Black,
2017, p.70).

12. INFLUENCES IN THE GROWTH OF BACCALAUREATE
EDUCATION
• Brown Report- also know as Nursing for the Future, it recommended that
basic schools of nursing be placed in universities and colleges, with effort
made to recruit men and minorities into nursing.
• The Brown report inspired the writing of the position paper entitled
Educational Preparation for Nurse Practitioners and Assistants to Nurses by
the ANA and it suggests that a BSN in nursing should be the foundation for
professional practice (Black, 2017, p.70).

13. INFLUENCES IN THE GROWTH OF BACCALAUREATE
EDUCATION
• Lysaught Report- Also referred to as An Abstract for Action. It identified the
priorities of nursing problems such as the need for increased research into both
the practice and the education of nurses as well as enhanced educational
preparation for nurses (Black, 2017, p.71).
• NLN- National League for Nursing. This organization consists of nurses,
faculty members, health care agencies, nursing programs and non nursing
personal who are supportive of nurses.

14. MEDIA IMAGE OF NURSING
Series 2- The picture to the left, is the
first picture to pop up on the google
search engine when the word “Nurse” is
searched for in images (“Improving
Nurses Health”, 2017).

15. • Images have a very powerful impact on emotions and sets the stage for how one is going to
perceive something. People often “Judge a book by its cover” and the same is done when
images are viewed on media sites and the internet; It creates a preconceived notion of what is
to be expected.
• The images we first see of a nurse can be the first and lasting impression someone has of
nursing. These images have a negative or positive effect on the attitudes of professional
nursing.
MEDIA IMAGE OF NURSING

16. • The outdated traditional image of nurses in a white uniform with a cap are evolving and nurses
are not so easily identified in the healthcare setting as easily as before hand. There is no current
standard or distinction between nurses and other healthcare providers. In most places RN is
printed on ID cards in bold letters to differentiate between other health professionals.
• Many facilities are moving towards the establishment of dress norms that are uniform to
distinguish nurses from others, this includes having all the same color and style of scrubs to
identify certain providers (RN’s wear all blue scrubs while MD’s wear green).
• Another issue is how nurses like to be addressed or introduced. Doctors tend to be introduced
by their title while nurses prefer to be acknowledged by their first names as this adds to the
nurse-patient relationship (Black, 2017, p.41).
• “Nurse Ratched” from the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a long standing image
towards nurses and has a negative impact and is used to compare how nurses treat patients.
MEDIA IMAGE OF NURSING

17. INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE THE NURSING IMAGE
1) The Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media:
 “Nurses and the nursing profession are essentially invisible to the media and,
consequently, to the American public” (Black, 2017, p.41).
 This study was designed to analyze and survey how healthcare and nursing are
portrayed in a variety publications.
 Recommendations to enhance nursing image in the media according to the study:
Being proactive in establishing roles and on going dialogue, changing the wording
of “consult your doctor” to include other providers, distinguish between researchers
V.S doctoral/medical degrees for clarity in journalism, include information by and
about nurses, and differentiate between healthcare and medicine in the media.

18. 2) The Johnson & Johnson Campaign:
 A campaign designed to “enhance the image of the nursing profession, recruit new
nurses and educators, and to retain nurses currently in the system” (Black, 2017,
p.41)
 The collaboration of multimillion dollar companies such as this, to recruit and retain
nurses is crucial to creating an accurate image of professional nursing and in turn
addressing the ongoing issue of nursing shortages.
 www.discoveringnursing.com is a website created by Johnson & Johnson that has 3
separate portals, one for nurses, one for students, and one for those looking into
nursing as a career (Black, 2017, p.42).
INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE THE NURSING IMAGE

19. 3) The Truth about Nursing-
 Nonprofit organization that sets out to “Increase public understanding of the
central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care” (Black, 2017, p.42).
Uses social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin to enhance the
image of nursing.
Nursing image changes the most with 1 on 1 nurse-patient encounters, where
people see what nursing truly is about.
INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE THE NURSING IMAGE

20. REFERENCES
Altruism. (2018). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved September, 14, 2018, from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/altruism
Black, P.B. (2017). Professional Nursing Concepts and Challenges. (8th, ed.). Maryland Heights,
Missouri: Elsevier/Saunders.
Improving Nurses Health: Association Issues Grand Challenge. (2017, may 16). Safety and Health.
Retrieved from https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/15637-improving-nurses-health-
association-issues-grand-challenge