Professional Socialization in Nursing
M6A3: Professional Role Socialization Paper
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The Associate Degree in Nursing program at Excelsior College is designed for individuals with significant clinical health care experience. This means that all students have provided some aspect of health care for patients. Transitioning to the role of the Professional Nurse requires development of a new framework in your approach to patient care. The process of role transition requires you to reflect on what knowledge and skills you bring as a student and how you transform into the role of the professional nurse. While not all students in the program are licensed practical nurses similarities exist in the evolution of your current position to a new role.
Using APA format, write a six (6) to ten (10) page paper (excludes cover and reference page). A minimum of three (3) current professional references must be provided. Current references include professional publications or valid and current websites dated within five (5) years. Additionally, a textbook that is no more than one (1) edition older than current textbook may be used.
Read the following and then compose your paper:
•Chapter 4: Role Transition (Reprinted with permission from: Lora Claywell (2009) LPN to RN Transitions 2nd ed.) St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.)
•Ellis & Hartley (10th ed), Nursing in Today’s World. Chapter 1, pp. 26-28, Characteristics of a Profession.
The paper consists of five (5) parts and must be submitted by the close of week six.
•Part I: Define professional socialization. Using the criteria for a profession described in the assigned readings, discuss three (3) criteria of the nursing profession which support professional socialization.
•Part II: Refer to the Four Stages of Role Transition listed at the end of the Module Notes for this module. Read and summarize each stage. Then, identify the one stage which you are currently experiencing and support your decision.
•Part III: Identify two barriers which may interfere with accomplishing Claywell’s FOURTH stage of role transition. For each barrier, describe two (2) resources to overcome each one. (total of 4 resources).
•Part IV: Claywell (2009) discusses 8 areas of differences between the LPN and RN roles: Assessment skills, Patient teaching skills; Communication skills; Educational preparation; Intravenous Therapy; Legal responsibilities; Nursing care planning; Thinking skills. Choose three (3) differences and provide supporting evidence how the differences you selected are implemented AND why they are such an integral part of the RN role.
•Part V: Conclusion. Describe your plan for socialization into the role of the professional nurse.
Compose your work using a word processor (or other software as appropriate) and save it frequently to your computer. Use a 12 font size, double space your work and use APA format for citations, references, and overall format. Information on how to use the Excelsior College Library to help you research and write your paper is available through the Library Help for AD Nursing Courses page. Assistance with APA format, grammar, and avoiding plagiarism is available for free through the Excelsior College Online Writing Lab (OWL). Be sure to check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors before you submit your assignment
Professional Socialization of Nursing
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Ellis and Hartley argue, in their article “Nursing in Today’s World. Chapter 1, pp 26-28, Characteristics of a Profession”, that there are quite astronomical qualities and attitudes that are more often than not associated with a particular profession. These could be related to the experience, expertise, and the job skills which are associated with the profession. The purpose of this paper is to examine keenly how such skills are developed and nurtured. In other words, the paper tries to give an in-depth diagnosis of the process by which amateurs and apprentices become well versed in their profession (Masters, 2014). In our case, we would consider how this transformation takes place in nursing. The paper is covered under the following five sub-categories: 1. Professional socialization According to Ellis and Hartley, professional socialization refers to the acquisition of values, attitudes, skills and knowledge pertaining to a professional subculture. It may involve all those things that may make a worker be assimilated to the working environment that is more often than not associated with education and socialization. For this to be achieved, there are several criteria that ensure the transition of nurses from apprenticeship to licensed nurses. These factors also support the process of professional socialization. Three such factors are: a) Mentor experience Every nursing trainee is expected to work under a mentor who mainly guides them in terms of career development. From the readings provided for this course, Ellis and Hartley explain that instructor experience is crucial in facilitating both formal and informal learning and therefore supporting positive socialization among the amateurs. They achieve this by assisting students in the areas of general difficulty that are commonly associated with a new environment. They are also responsible for ensuring the students overcome the euphoria associated with a new place of work. Mentors, therefore, increase the self- esteem and help socialize students into the nursing role through the development circles of supportive friends and colleagues. There are promising strategies in fostering the type of mentoring that facilitates students’ learning. This, in essence, strengthens their professionalism, develops the skills of individual nurse trainees and eventually creates an environment that favors the learning and socialization process. The strategies include the use of a multidisciplinary team in the teaching and the assessment of the educational processes. This, in a nutshell, provides some insight into how mentoring can help to mitigate forms of socialization maximizing the negative effects if any. An effective mentor should possess excellent communication skills; problem-solving as well right decision-making strategies to enable them mentor and guide the students into the path of actual nursing career. The experience of being mentored inculcates positive ideas in the apprentices that in turn make them be nurse instructor eventually. b) Preceptorship Experience by newly qualified nurses particularly when paired with preceptors who demonstrate high levels of authentic leadership is mandatory. Preceptorship can have a positive effect on engagement as well as retention of all staff. When newly registered nurses receive preceptorship there are high chances of such nurses boosting their confidence as well as professional socialization into the nursing environment. This automatically results in job satisfaction that leads to improvement in the delivery of quality patient care and services. It is also vital in making nurses feel loved hence it also helps in boosting one’s self-esteem that goes hand in hand with positive socialization. Reports also suggest that most of the nurses who work through this socialization strategy end up having increased levels of competence. c) Working environment A working environment that promotes perceptions of fair treatment towards staff has a positive effect on staff motivation and commitment to organizational goals. The environment that surrounds the workplace is very crucial in socialization. This goes hand in hand with the organizational goals and objectives as well as culture. This also encompasses the working relations between the staff and the leaders. In a place where democratic leadership is practiced, there is always room for accommodating views of all members. At such, newly registered nurses would find it easier to raise concern as well as air their views without any fear of victimization. This helps in their growth in the profession. A positive working environment boosts the morale of newly employed nurses, and this leads to quick assimilation into the profession hence socialization. 2. Stages of role transition According to the readings by Lora Claywell (2009), there are four phases of character development experienced by newly registered nurses. In summary, the four phases are: i) Doing This is the initial period of professional role transition which encompasses in approximation the first 3 to 4 months of the study. This is, in essence, is the period of orientation prior to commencement and nurses mostly work in adult and pediatric medical-surgical units in different hospitals. This is the initial transition from a structured relatively, predictable life into a new set of expectations and responsibilities. Lora Claywell argues that the first stage is typically associated with challenges of adaptation and some bit of euphoria. The first phase is always associated with a tremendous intensity, range, fluctuation of emotions and frustration as graduates went through the painful process of discovering, learning, performing and accommodating each other at the workplace. The environment is decidedly difficult and the level of stress high.
ii) Being The next four to five months of the newly graduated nurses’ post orientation experience is always marked by a consistent and rapid transition advancement in their reasoning faculty, knowledge level as well as skill competency. The high degree of emotional disturbances, as well as frustration in the prior s...