Nursing Practice


Good nursing practice requires knowledge, skill, and moral imagination.
(Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010, p. 166)
 
According to Crigger and Godfrey (2011), “Nursing practice occurs through a series of decisions; almost every decision and action of a nurse professional has an ethical import” (p. 59). Nurses are often at a crossroads and need to decide how they will act in a situation. Their decision will then result in a potentially favorable or unfavorable outcome for the patient. In nursing, this problem is further compounded by the lack of reaction time available and the immediate necessity to react to a situation at hand. Nurses need to be able to think on their feet at any given time and make the most prudent decisions they are capable of at every moment. This skill is honed as the nurse gains experience and confidence as a practicing professional. This nursing profession perspective provides the basis for how nurses execute the role of a nurse on the job (Celik & Hisar, 2012).
Do you agree that nursing practice is a series of decisions?  Do you think these decisions always have an ethical import?  Upon reflecting upon patient situations, do you sometimes later wish you had chosen a different course of action? Would your decision, if done differently, have had different outcomes (perhaps an outcome with better consequences) for the patient?  As professionals, we need to be accountable to not only our decisions, but the consequences of those decisions as well.  What are your thoughts on these matters?  As always, I welcome feedback and comments.

References
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010). Educating nurses: A call for radical transformation. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://www.carnegie foundation.org/previous-work/professional-graduate-education.
Celik, S., & Hisar, F. (2012). The influence of the professionalism behaviour of nurses working in health institutions on job satisfaction. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 18(2), 180-187.
Crigger, N., & Godfrey, N. (2011). The making of nurse professionals: A transformational approach. Sudbury, MA. Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Siciliano McLaughlin, M. A. (2016). The Experience of Accelerated Nursing Program Graduates Utilizing Ethics in Their Nursing Practice. Retrieved from Pro Quest LLC. (10195870). 

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