Discuss The Importance Of Professional Values And Behaviors Within Your Own Field Of Practice

PORTFOLIO ESSAY 3 SECTIONS
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Discuss the importance of professional values and behaviors within your own field of practice
Professional values are the principles that guide your decisions and actions in your career.in medicine, they include integrity, compassion, altruism, continuous improvement, excellence and ability to partner with members of the wider healthcare team. They are designed to underpin the medicine profession and form the moral contract between healthcare service providers and the society CITATION Seg12 \l 1033 (Segen's Medical Dictionary, 2012). Values change and in some countries such as the UK, the regulatory body includes lay representatives who judge professional conduct CITATION Jil12 \l 1033 (Thistlethwaite, 2012). The main reason why they are structured enforcement framework on professional values is because they greatly affect the quality of care accorded to the public. Hence, this section will explicate why professional values and behaviors are important to nursing.
One of the professional values nurses must adhere to is the autonomy of the patient. The nurse must respect the choices of the patient at all times. If the patient is a child and or is mentally unstable and cannot make rational decisions about his/her body and health, the nurse has to use the authority of a surrogate or an attorney. The work of the nurse is only to provide facts about the condition(s) and let the client, their surrogate or attorney make the decisions for them. This removes the bias the nurses might have which they might want to put across because they are ‘in the best interest of the patient.’ The nurse might be knowing what is right for the patient but he/she cannot decide for the patient. Therefore, professional values which must be inculcated and cultivated by each nurse help in suppressing individual biases that stem from the nurse’s emotional attachment to the patient and wishing to do what he/she thinks will help the patient.
Professional values establish clear expectations on what the employee ought to do CITATION Dan181 \l 1033 (Weberg, Porter-O'Grady, Mangold, & Malloch, 2018). There are instances when there is a grey area in what the employee can do. Using the professional values, the grey area is eliminated as it stipulates clearly what the nurse can do or has to do in such instances. Having clear expectations on what a person has to do reduces the uncertainty in making decisions and professional values and behaviors in the workplace help establish these expectations CITATION Lin19 \l 1033 (Kramer, 2019). Additionally, they offer guidance on how to proceed with ay case. Different cases have different approaches and therefore the professional is guided by the professional values to avoid making mistakes. For example, the principle of social justice, a healthcare provider has to ensure that they accord help to anyone who needs their services.
They also promote excellence. The values are standardized and are coined after careful analysis of the nature of the work of the profession. They are then structured to guide the professionals to bring the best out of them. After many years these professional values have proven to help the healthcare professionals deliver more quality care CITATION Lyo08 \l 1033 (Lyons, Specht, Karlman, & Maas, 2008). Over the centuries, these professional values have led to the general improvement in the quality of care offered to patients and therefore they continue to be relevant and important in health care practice. These values have created a culture of excellence that reflects a commitment for commitment to sustained growth and improvement in ways to better the service delivery. The culture stymies mediocrity and status quo and seeks to improve the quality of care it accords to its clients.
Professional values also help in improving the positive image of the company CITATION Eil13 \l 1033 (Ray, 2013). When all the workers adhere to the professional values, excellence is achieved and their image in the eyes of the general public is improved. Any individual would like to be hospitalized in a facility which is seen to provide quality care and the healthcare workers have been praised for their professionalism rather than a facility which is known for negligence. Thus, when these values are cultivated, they improve excellence which in turn improves the brand’s positive image in the community.
Discuss two aspects of communication skills that were highlighted during the role play and peer feedback through the communication checklist.
In every communication, there is a sender and recipient of the information. This seemingly simple process is affected by many other factors and they can degrade the quality of communication and or even completely distort the message. One facet of communication is interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages CITATION SKi19 \l 1033 (SKills You Need, 2019). This process is affected by how the speaker conveys the message and or how the recipient tunes in to the message. Some of the main aspects of this communication process is active listening which details how the listener can get the whole message from speaker and nonverbal cues that enrich their interactions.
* Active listening
In role-play, one of the most critical aspects of communications that were highlighted is active listening. Listening in itself is an important part of the communication process because it helps the receiver to decode the information and understand it if possible, relay feedback. Since listening is a very important part of the verbal communication process, the feedback is reliant on the success of the listening. To ensure that you make the best out of the listening process, you have to be actively listening. Active listening is focusing on hearing what the information speaker is saying CITATION Mic13 \l 1033 (Rost & Wilson, 2013). The receiver puts down any other distraction and actively concentrates on hearing from the speaker. Since the idea is to get the complete message the speaker is communicating, active listening helps to capture all the other nonverbal aspects of the communication such as hand movements.
It is important to give active listening feedback to let the speaker know that you are actively listening. This can be in the form of a nod and keeping direct eye contact. The nod does not necessarily mean that you agree with what the speaker has to say, but rather as a confirmation that you are actively listening. You can also encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes, and "uh-huh." Keeping eye contact is also another way of showing the speaker that you are interested in what they are saying and you have given them undivided attention. You can also interject courteously with a comment recapping what the speaker is saying or ask questions. Cumulatively, these give you as the speaker a confirmation that the listener is paying full attention to what you have to say.
Another issue in active listening is to defer judgment or airing personal opinions to the speaker. Interrupting frustrates the speaker and limit’s full understanding of the speaker. As a listener, you should always wait for the speaker to finish talking and maybe welcome comment or question. Keeping eye on the nonverbal cues from the speaker can help the listener know when to air his/her opinions whether they agree or disagree with the speaker. It is important for the author to finish each point before you interject with a comment or question.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication entails sending and receiving messages without using words. The listener and the speaker rely on body movement and interpretation of these movements to communicate. Nonverbal communication emphasizes verbal message the same way italicizing and bolding of written words emphasizes written communication. Nonverbal communication is very integral in communication and it enriches the interaction and the overall success rate of the communication. Sometimes the nonverbal language is very loud and communicates the true message that can be masked with words. We have evolved to read facial expressions and decipher their meanings CITATION Sch01 \l 1033 (Schmidt & Cohn, 2001), and in most cases, people derive the information t...