DIMENSIONS OF
NURSING
EXAM 1
CONCEPTS
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Dimensions Concept Guide Exam #1 (Modules 1-3)
1. Advance Practice Nurses (Chapter 1)
2. Well-Organized and Strong Representation (Chapter 1)
3. Approaches to Defining a Profession (Chapter 1)
4. Trait Approach (Chapter 1)
5. Origin of Power (Chapter 1)
6. The Sanctity of Life (Chapter 2)
7. The Father of Medicine (Chapter 2)
8. The Evolution of Symbols of Nursing (Chapter 2)
9. Nursing Leaders (Chapter 2)
10. Florence Nightingale A Health-care Reformer (Chapter 2)
11. Interprofessional Education (Chapter 4)
12. Case Management (Chapter 4)
13. The Importance of Technique (Chapter 4)
14. Converting the Curriculum (Chapter 4)
15. QSEN Competencies Guide for Nursing Curriculum (Chapter 4)
16. Nursing Organizations and Their Importance (Chapter 5)
17. The ANA (Chapter 5)
18. Grassroot Organizations (Chapter 5)
19. Capitated Payment Systems (Chapter 14)
20. Demographics Affecting Health-care Delivery (Chapter 14)
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21. Health-care Systems in the U.S. (Chapter 14)
22. Health-care Level and Settings (Chapter 14)
23. Independent Nurse-Run Health Centers (Chapter 14)
24. Levels of Service (Chapter 14)
25. Table 14.1 (Chapter 14)
26. Box 14.4 (Chapter 14)
27. What is Civility? (Chapter 17)
28. Communication and Civility (Chapter 17)
29. Stop the Spiral (Chapter 17)
30. Bullying (Chapter 17)
31. Workplace Violence (Chapter 17)
32. Lateral Violence (Chapter 17)
33. Ethical Prohibitions to Incivility (Chapter 17)
34. Mentoring (Chapter 17)
35. Incivility in Nursing Education (Chapter 17)
36. Don?t Eat Your Young (Chapter 17)
ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSES CHAPTER 1
For individuals who are unfamiliar with the health-care delivery system, it is sometimes difficult
to understand the similarities and differences between nursing titles and roles.
This confusion is particularly evident in the case of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) and nurse
practitioners (NPs), who are sometimes collectively referred to as advanced practice registered
nurses (APRNs).
WELL-ORGANAZIED AND STRONG REPRESENTATION CHAPTER 1
Professional organizations represent the members of the profession and control the quality of
professional practice.
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The National League for Nursing (NLN) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) are the
two major national organizations that represent nursing in today's health-care system.
The NLN is primarily responsible for regulating the quality of the educational programs that
prepare nurses for the practice of nursing, whereas the ANA is more concerned with the quality
of nursing practice in the daily health-care setting.
Both these groups are well organized, but neither can be considered powerful when compared
with other professional organizations, such as the American Hospital Association, the American
Medical Association (AMA), or the American Bar Association (ABA).
One reason for their lack of strength is that fewer than 10 percent of all nurses in the United
States are members of any professional organization at the national level. Many nurses do belong
to specialty organizations that represent a specific area of practice, but these lack sufficient
political power to produce changes in health-care laws and policies at the national level.
APPROACHES TO DEFINING A PROFESSION CHAPTER 1
In common use, terms such as position, job, occupation, profession, professional, and
professionalism often are used interchangeably and incorrectly.
The following definitions will clarify what is meant by these terms within this text:
Position: A group of tasks assigned to one individual
Job: A group of positions similar in nature and level of skill that can be carried out by
one or more individuals
Occupation: A group of jobs similar in type of work that are usually found throughout
an industry or work environment
Profession: A type of occupation that requires prolonged preparation and formal
qualifications and meets certain higher level criteria (discussed later in this chapter) that
raise it to a level above that of an occupation
Professional: A person who belongs to and practices a profession (The term professional
is probably the most misused of all these terms when describing people who are clearly
involved in jobs or occupations, such as a “professional truck driver,” “professional
football player,” or even “professional thief.”)
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Professionalism: The demonstration of high-level personal, ethical, and skill
characteristics of a member of a profession.
PROCESS APPROACH
The process approach views all occupations as points of development into a profession situated
along a continuum ranging from position to profession:
Using this approach, the question becomes not whether nursing and truck driving are professions
but where they are located along the continuum. Occupations such as medicine, law, and the
ministry are widely accepted by the public as being closest to the professional end of the
continuum.3 Other occupations may be less clearly defined.
The major difficulty with this approach is that it lacks criteria on which to base judgments. Final
determination of the status of an occupation or profession depends almost completely on public
perception of the activities of that occupation. Nursing has always had a rather negative public
image when it comes to being viewed as a profession.
POWER APPROACH
The power approach uses two criteria to define a profession:
1. How much independence of practice does this occupation have?
2. How much power does this occupation control?
Using this determinant, occupations such as medicine, law, and politics clearly would be
considered professions.
The members of these occupations earn high incomes, practice their skills with a great deal of
independence; and exercise significant power over individuals, the public, and the political
community, both individually and in organized groups.
The ministry is generally perceived as having power and influence. However, most people in
this group, except for a few individuals such as television evangelists, have relatively low
income levels.
Nursing, of course, with its comparatively lower salaries, low membership in professional
organizations, and perceived lack of political power, would clearly not meet the power criteria
for a profession.