Professional Socialization and Nursing Stages

¶ … nurse is difficult and tedious. It involves a lot more than a mere succession of skills and business activities. In fact, nursing is a part of the many processes, one of which is the process of socialization that is development and internalization of professional identity. This level of socialization, professional socialization is required for connecting with students and newcomers in professional practices.

Therefore, it is important to increase the understanding of one of nursing's most important aspect, professional socialization, and explore the interconnected factors from the standpoint of a nursing student. This essay will examine Benner's five stages and provide personal reflection the topic of role socialization in nursing. Body Patricia Benner wanted to understand how nurses make the transition from inexperienced novice to confident expert. She developed five stages in order to express her thought on such a transition. The stages she described are: "Novice 2. Advanced Beginner 3. Competent Practitioner 4. Proficient Practitioner 5.

Expert Practitioner Advancing from stage to stage occurs gradually as nurses gain more experience within patient care" (Black & Chitty, 2014, p. 121). These stages mark the progression of a nurse and helps an outside perspective to see what a nurse goes through in order to complete that transition. The second stage, my current stage, Advance Beginner, is when a learner has distinguished a particular order that exists in clinical settings. In this stage, learners based their actions on both principles and theory.

However, a learn will tend to experience difficulty with formulation of priorities, viewing several nursing actions as equally significant. The other stages are passed as a learned begins to differentiate and prioritize, using experience as a means of applying adequate response versus simply going to theory. My current stage of transaction as described through Benner's stages is advanced beginner. I am familiar with most concepts that basic training involves. I have had experience speaking to a multitude of people that are staff and patients.

I feel as though there is some understanding of where I stand in my career and where I want to be. I think this level of self-awareness is not clear in the novice stage. People often share their desires and goals with people in the novice stage unsure of what they truly want. They just want to "test the waters." I feel as though I did a fair amount of testing and discovered I am truly passionate about nursing. I feel secure in my choice to be a nurse.

I enjoy being around others. I enjoy helping others. I feel motivated to continue in my journey. Time marks the other more advanced stages. As much as I know about theory, application is different. I feel I need more time in order to construct a better method of application of studied theory. This can take years to develop and I feel as though I will be there in time.

The stage of competent practitioner is a hard stage to cross and involves many hours of work as well as interaction with patients. Although I can build good rapport with patients and staff, I do not know how to behave in certain situations. That comes with time. A specific example are patient histories and incidence of patients requesting pain medication. A competent practitioner will know what to ask in order to see if a patient is coming in for pain medication for recreational use.

I am still not aware of what questions to ask not what to do should a situation like this arise. I know I am passionate about helping others, but I still need to work out the various scenarios and minor details. Essentially, I have to go past application of theory and move into the territory of common sense.

Making the transition and upgrading my credentials by earning a BSN or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree can be challenging because it involves socializing into a new and more multifaceted professional role. Professional socialization involves the process of learning one's professional role, emerging as a member of any particular occupational culture. A key element in the all-encompassing development of professional socialization is the experience of gaining a kind of affirmation from various socializing agents. This is called legitimation.

Traditionally, prospects for transitioning into getting a BSN were limited, however now that the opportunities have grown, it has given people like myself an option to become exposed to a much more enriching and complex socializing experience. For me it will provide legitimacy.