Image of Professional Nursing
Nursing is a profession that has gradually evolved over the years in response to human health needs and even grown to a reputable profession over time. Historically the field of nursing had little to do with medical experience and gender. Nurses mostly learned the profession through observation. Nursing was, therefore, never seen as a respectable job (RanardChelsy, 2019). When nursing began in the United States just before the industrial revolution, it was left for the women since they were never seen as a respectable gender. Nursing began as an art of caregiving, which was often the role of the American woman, especially during world war 11. However, history has seen the great role played by nurses as caregivers and helped to create the image of professional nursing. For instance, nursing is now being taught in schools as a career program that requires extensive training (RanardChelsy, 2019). The program, therefore, creates a level of prestige that was never experienced by nurses before this era. Nursing is now being studied even by male students as a career subject. Nurses make up the most significant number of workers in the healthcare set up. This has seen them diversify their roles to serve even as administrators in healthcare, researchers, educators, and their primary role of providing direct care.
The media has, however, had a negative impact while portraying the image of professional nursing. For instance, nurses are viewed as non-qualified and, in this case, only serve as assistants to the physicians. They are not portrayed as people with adequate skills to express their ideas regarding certain patient treatment procedures (Kaminski, 2003). The media has also played a significant role in portraying the nursing profession as a gender-sensitive career. Due to this, a higher percentage of the world’s population believes that nursing ought to be practiced by women. Different people hold different perceptions concerning nursing (Younge, Van Niekerk, & Mogotlane, 2004). The media has shown nursing as an act of kindness, which has made society reluctant to appreciate nursing as a reputable profession. For instance, nurses, as seen in media platforms such as movies and books, are always dressed in uniforms during their working hours, they spend most of their time tending to patients and receiving instruction from physicians which does not give them a full command of their profession. The media has, therefore, continually shown a negative image of the nursing profession.