Professional Identity, Stewardship, and Advocacy in Nursing

Introduction

This paper reports on interviews conducted with two healthcare professionals working in the same hospital. Several issues stood out regarding professionalism, nursing ethics, and the effect of a professional approach on day-to-day nursing work. The interviews also illuminated the perspectives these professionals hold on teamwork in nursing more broadly. The two respondents were a registered staff nurse and a department supervisor, and their accounts are examined in turn before being compared.

Staff Nurse Perspective on Professionalism and Teamwork

The nurse indicated that he was a member of several teams in the hospital, but one that stood out was the quick response team — a largely voluntary unit of which he serves as coordinator of communications and response. This team consists of dedicated nurses who are willing to cut short even their holidays to attend to any emergency that overwhelms the normal staffing level. His role involves communicating the type of emergency, the required response, the location, and the preparation the hospital needs to manage the situation. He noted that this responsibility has significantly deepened his commitment to the organization and his sense of belonging within it. It has also taught him to offer a helping hand to colleagues even when he is not required to do so.

According to the nurse, professionalism in nursing is not simply the acquisition of core competencies and the ability to deliver services as stipulated by training manuals and related research. It extends beyond basic training and certification to include the ethical consideration of patients, meeting their special needs, empathizing with their condition, and initiating collective responses to the challenges the profession faces. He noted that this broader understanding of professionalism has given him an open approach to challenges — always asking when uncertain, helping where he can, and correcting colleagues when nursing ethics are overstepped — ultimately making work within the organization more collegial and manageable.

In the hospital, the nurse views the leaders as good stewards of healthcare because they work to inspire professionalism — particularly among newly recruited nurses — through regular training sessions, seminars, and exchange programs. These initiatives, he observed, enable nurses to develop a wider perspective on the healthcare process and to experience different environments with varied challenges across healthcare systems.

Leadership, Stewardship, and Advocacy: The Nurse's View

The nurse considers professional advocacy a matter of significant importance in daily hospital operations. As SEAP (2015) indicates, professional advocacy involves helping colleagues and patients express their wishes, views, and needs to influential decision-makers within the organization — something they might otherwise be unable to do on their own. The nurse sees this as a way of empowering people who are vulnerable or marginalized within the organization and of ensuring that every individual is an authentic participant in institutional life.

The nurse also expressed a firm belief in servant leadership within the nursing profession and in the value of consultative nursing processes that address not only the professional dimension of nursing but also the social dimension and team spirit. He showed considerable commitment to professional advocacy and to creating an enabling environment in which all staff can perform their duties to the best of their ability.