The Nursing Profession: Public Image Analysis

Superior Essays
Nursing has been an occupation in the world that has had a tremendous development in regards to not only technical skills but also public image. Nursing developed from a profession that was highly disregarded to a profession that is now significant in our society. Between 1500 and 1860 nurses’ image was looked down upon because for the most part nurses during these years were unfit for the profession – “the lay attendants who filled the nursing role were illiterate, rough, inconsiderate, and often immoral and alcoholic” (Masters, K. 2005, p 9). Due to the wide distribution of unfit individuals in the profession, nurses were considered to be a low-status position. However, this image changed after Florence Nightingale reformed the profession …show more content…
A discussion paper, the authors mention a situation where nurses are not perceived in the manner that they should be even though nurses have developed in terms of knowledge and skill as the authors state “Worldwide, nurses have developed themselves into professionals with a great deal of knowledge, as witnessed by the development of nursing protocols and guidelines. Despite these developments towards professionalization, previous studies on this subject have shown that nurses are not given due recognition for the skills they have by the majority of the public” (Hoeve, Y. t., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. 2014). The authors of this paper go on to summarize how nurses are not viewed as an individual with an independent status within their careers through their statement “nurses are not depicted as autonomous professionals and the public is not aware that nowadays nursing is to a great extent a theory-based and scholarly profession” (Hoeve, Y. t., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. 2014). Through the findings of these articles it is evident that nurses have indeed developed throughout time but they have not been credited or perceived with the image from the public that they …show more content…
A discussion paper indicates that nursing has had a remarkable development in the last 30 years of the 20th century as well as the first decade of the 21st century in terms of their professionalization as they are now “intertwined with a focus on the development of nursing theory, nursing research and nursing practice…” (Hoeve, Y. t., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. 2014). This article continues to mention how nursing has developed due to Florence Nightingale and has continued to develop in “numerous types of education programmes in the last decades, which resulted in a variety of nursing levels like bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees”; but even after all the development the public still does not recognize the scientific and professional development of the nursing profession. (Hoeve, Y. t., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. 2014). The authors also mention that respected news media sources belittle nurses and thus this influences the public to believe nurses are not in fact autonomous professionals with skills and knowledge on a scientific level, as the authors declare that readers of the news source “do not get a sense that nurses are educated life-saving professionals” (Hoeve, Y. t., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P.

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