The nursing professionalism, as systematized view on the nursing as specialized job and the view on the nursing activity process of the nurse, is the important concept to acquire not only the personal satisfaction but also the recognition of the value...
The nursing professionalism, as systematized view on the nursing as specialized job and the view on the nursing activity process of the nurse, is the important concept to acquire not only the personal satisfaction but also the recognition of the value of nursing from the public through the desirable nursing professionalism. In the process of pursuing professionalization of the occupations, the special job has been determined by the professionalism of individuals, who are performing the job of the specific occupation, and as the recent health care system is shifted to business-oriented model emphasizing the efficiency and productivity, its environment requires the nursing professionalism more than ever.
To maintain and improve the nursing professionalism demanded by the society or organizations, the nursing professionalism must be recognized, and can be verified and evaluated in the circumstantial conditions, that is possible by identifying the specific elements, which can explain the nursing professionalism. And the nursing professionalism can be amplified and understood within the consumers and health care system as long as the nursing professionalism is identified specifically and maintained, and able to be improved. However, it is agreed in the recognition that the professionalism is important in nursing, but there are lots of opinions what elements it should include. Therefore, it needs to establish the core elements of nursing professionalism, which are not systematically arranged yet, through the consensus among the nursing experts of the diverse nursing occupations.
To establish the core elements of nursing professionalism, this study was conducted utilizing the Delphi technique, which gathers the opinions of the experts and draws the consensus.
The data collection of this study has been performed from Sep 23, 2011 to Dec 03, 2011, and the core elements of nursing professionalism were identified from the professors, nursing administrators, head nurses, the and nursing practitioners, using Delphi survey questionnaires, and their importances were analyzed.
To secure the relevancy of the core elements of nursing professionalism, the Delphi survey were conducted 3 times through the Delphi-panel composed by 29 persons. in the first Delphi survey, 320 opinions on the nursing professionalism were analyzed and integrated, and 34 core elements were drawn, which were classified into the core elements of the interpersonal nursing professionalism, the public nursing professionalism, and the intrapersonal nursing professionalism by referring to the studies of Van de Camp et. al. (2004). Through the 2nd and 3rd Delphi surveys, the content validity on the core elements of nursing professionalism, which passed the consensus process of each area in the Delphi-panel, were calculated, and among the elements having the content validity higher than 0.37, 21 core elements of nursing professionalism were selected by choosing the elements having average of 3.5 or higher, and less than 0.80 of average deviation in case that the average was 4.00 or higher, or less than 4.00.
The results of this study are as follows.
The interpersonal nursing professionalism refers to the nursing professionalism including the elements to form effective and appropriate relationship among the nursing subject personnel, the employees of higher ranks and lower ranks, the colleagues and the employees of other occupations, that was consisted of 7 elements; communication skills, reliability, teamwork, leadership, sympathy and consideration, ability as an educator, and role model in order according to the average of importance.
The public nursing professionalism refers to the nursing professionalism including the elements related to the social demands for the job specialized in nursing, and the public trust that 'the nurses are suppose to be like this', that was consisted of 6 elements; responsibility, skillful nursing techniques, high level of expertise, compliance of ethical code, autonomy, and fairness in order according to the average of importance.
The intrapersonal nursing professionalism refers to the nursing professionalism including the elements of personal characteristics having impacts on the manner of carrying out the nursing professionalism or acts, that is, the personal elements to allow carrying out the effective and appropriate functions of nursing professionalism, that was consisted of 8 elements; capability of problem-solving, continuous learning, capability of self-management, vocation, educational readiness, motivation, humanistic values, participation in the research activities in order according to the average of importance.
The meanings of this study can be arranged as follows.
The concept of the nursing professionalism, which has been significant variable for the quantitative research in the domestic nursing area so far, was redefined by identifying the core elements through literature review, interview, and utilization of Delphi technique from the nursing experts, and it is deemed to provide significant information to the other researchers studying the nursing professionalism by preparing the consensus knowledge from the nursing experts on the core elements, which compose that concept. In addition, if the results of this study are utilized in the sites of the student education, the hospital nurse education course and the nursing site, it is expected to help the nurses to maintain nursing professionalism and to provide quality nursing service to the patients, and as such, it is deemed to consolidate of the position of the nurses as manpower demanded by the changing health care environment. And since the nursing quality level is very important factor to secure competitiveness for the organization hiring nurses, particularly for the hospital, it is expected to provide the specific information on the parts to be supported continuously at the organizational dimension to develop the nursing professionalism of the nurses.
The result of this study are substantial enough to use as criteria to evaluate the nursing professionalism of the nurses, but they have several limitations, and to utilize it effectively, the subsequent researches and the development are required as follows.
First, since the experts participated in this study consisted of the professors, the nursing administrators, the head nurses, and the nursing practitioners, it has not taken the opinions of the sociologist, the psychologist and the nurses engaging in professional nursing institutions into consideration and reached at consensus, and the subsequent studies need to take opinions of much diverse type of occupations and more groups of experts into consideration.
Second, since the 3 domains of nursing professionalism explained in this study were classified together with the definition by the researchers sole discretion based on the literature review, its validity and classification on the domains need to be validated by the nursing experts and the subsequent studies.
Third, the in-depth studies on the elements not selected as final elements of nursing professionalism in this study are deemed to be necessary, and on the detailed contents included in core elements identified through this study, it needs to take the opinions of the experts into consideration.
Key Words : nursing professionalism, core element, Delphi technique