Nursing Has Evolved from Being an Occupation free essay sample

During the past decade nurse theorists and educationalists have been attempting to establish nursing as an academic discipline Nurse education is rapidly moving away from a single scientific or technical colleges of nursing into institutes of higher education. In this paper I had the privilege to discuss how Nursing has evolved from being an occupation to being a profession and an academic discipline. According to the Collins English Dictionary, An occupation isa persons regular work or profession; job or principal activity, any activity on which time is spent by a person, the act of occupying or the state of being occupied, the control of a country by a foreign military and the period of time that a nation, place, or position is occupied. Occupation is an activity or task with which one occupies oneself; usually specifically the productive activity, service, trade, or craft for which one is regularly paid. One way to promote development is to clarify the professional role. We will write a custom essay sample on Nursing Has Evolved from Being an Occupation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Oxford English Dictionary defines a profession as a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification and in its definition of a professional; the dictionary uses the words competent, skillful, or assured. Professional competence and skills are learnt through specialized training, maintained through continuing professional development and embedded in the notion of behaving ethically, in the interest of the client or patient, the public or society. Professions play a role in every part of human society, and we all rely on professionals at multiple points in our daily lives from dentists to teachers, from pension managers to careers advisors, from town planners to paramedics. We rely on professionals to be experts, to know what to do when we need them to, and to act in our best interests. Back in the nineteenth century, the professions were seen to be law, religion, and medicine. Nowadays, the number of professions is ever-increasing, as occupations become more specialized in nature and more professionalized in terms of requiring certain standards of initial and ongoing education so that anything from automotive technicians to web designers can be defined as professionals. The words occupation and profession are interchangeable. Profession and occupation are almost the same, with only minor differences between them. The difference between occupation and profession can be stated with a simple example: Designing a building would be called a profession, whereas, constructing a building is an occupation. A profession needs extensive training and specialized knowledge. On the other hand, an occupation does not need any extensive training. A person with an occupation need not have specialized knowledge of his trade. A profession can be called an occupation when a person is paid for his particular skills, and his deep knowledge. Doctors, engineers, advocates, journalists, scientists, and many others, fall under the professional category. On the other hand, persons engaged in an occupation are not paid for their knowledge, but only for what they produce. Drivers, clerks and technicians fall under the category of occupation. Unlike a person engaged in an occupation, a professional has to undergo higher education. It is noticeable that a profession tends to be autonomous. When considering responsibilities, a profession demands that the responsibility lies with the individual. Moreover, only a professional will be able to assess fellow professionals. In regards to an occupation, no one has autonomous power; he or she is supervised by another person. Moreover, any person can make assessments, as this type of work does not require high degrees of knowledge and skill. Well, professionals enjoy a higher social status than a person engaged in an occupation. Another difference that can be seen between profession and occupation is that the former is guided through certain ethical codes, and is regulated by a certain statute. The term discipline originates from the Latin words discipulus, whichmeans pupil, and disciplina, which means teaching (noun). Related to it is also the word disciple as in the disciples of Jesus. A dictionary definition will give a whole range of quite different meanings of the term from training to submission to an authority to the control and self-control of behavior. As a verb it means training someone to follow a rigorous set of instructions, but also punishing and enforcing obedience. The medical meaning of discipline is a medical regimen imposed by a doctor on a patient to the patient’s benefit. It follows that the academic discipline can be seen as a form of specific and rigorous scientific training that will turn out practitioners who have been disciplined by their discipline for their own ood. In addition, discipline also means policing certain behaviors or ways of thinking. Individuals who have deviated from their discipline can be brought back in line or excluded. As a result, there is an important moral dimension to discipline that defines how people should behave or think. As previously mentioned, the term academic discipline certainly incorporates many el ements of the meaning of discipline. At the same time, it has also become a technical term for the organization of learning and the systematic production of new knowledge. Often disciplines are identified with taught subjects, but clearly not every subject taught at university can be called a discipline. There is more to disciplines than the fact that something is a subject taught in an academic setting. In fact, there is a whole list of criteria and characteristics, which indicate whether a subject is indeed a distinct discipline. A general list of characteristics would include disciplines have a particular object of research (e. g. aw, society, politics), though the object of research maybe shared with another discipline, disciplines have a body of accumulated specialist knowledge referring to their object of research, which is specific to them and not generally shared with another discipline, disciplines have theories and concepts that can organizethe accumulated specialist knowledge effectively, disciplines use specific terminologies or a specific technical language adjusted to their research object, disciplines have developed specific research met hods according to their specific research requirements and maybe most crucially, disciplines must have some institutional manifestation in the form of subjects taught at universities or colleges, respective academic departments and professional associations connected to it. Only through institutionalization are disciplines able to reproduce themselves from one generation to the next by means of specific educational preparation. A new discipline is therefore usually founded by the way of creating a professional leader devoted to it at an established university. Some disciplines would be considered to be more useful, more rigorous, more difficult, or more important than others. Nurses have specialized education and training validated by professional licensure. Nurses have a code of ethics and established practice standards, they are bound to adhere to, a violation of which can result in their license being revoked or sanctioned. They have their own body of ongoing research that shapes and governs our practice. Nurses work autonomously within their scope of practice. They formulate and carry out their own plan of care for clients when applicable; they apply judgment, use critical thinking skills, and make nursing diagnoses. Nurses use their specialized knowledge, experience, and skill set to initiate live-saving measures, improve and promote the health and well-being of the planet, and ease pain, suffering, and loss. They are all united in that common mission regardless of where they work, their position title, or whether they are employed, unemployed, or self-employed. Nursing has evolved from being an occupation to being a profession and an academic discipline. Nursing is variously described as a profession, a discipline, an occupation. The meanings assigned to such words and the expectations, demands, and responsibilities that each reveals to and or exacts from those privileged to call themselves registered nurse provides a splendid arena for viewing the struggle of nursing as an intellectual endeavor embedded in its own distinctive knowledge base, experiences, purposes, and values. Currently, pressure exerted within and without nursing to adopt the self-limiting potential and subordinated position that a professional discipline orientation and applied degree education talk on nursing is increasing. Nurses roles and mission, ideals, and ethical and practice standards are one a profession and also the attributes of an academic discipline.