If you are a nurse seeking a successful or satisfying career, learning the core professional nursing values is the best way to get started. You are probably wondering, what are these nursing values? What is the importance of nursing values? Or how do I learn about these nursing values?
If this sounds like you, continue reading to learn more about the core professional nursing values.
What is the importance of core professional values in nursing?
These values reflect your confidence and self-worth, making you attractive to prospective patients and employers.
Core professional nursing values help in improving patient satisfaction. Research by PubMed shows that values are a significant predictor of clients’ recognition of quality care, which ensures patients’ satisfaction.
Nursing values indicate a dedication to your nursing profession, which is vital in boosting your professional career to higher levels.
When implemented in daily nursing practice, the core values provide a guideline or basis for decision-making and clinical judgment with your patient’s needs in mind. This is essential for offering quality nursing care.
Nurses with strong core professional values are regarded as trustworthy and genuine. This is vital in creating a solid patient-nurse relationship.
Strong core professional nursing values help build a solid foundation to establish your nursing career.
Strong core nursing values make you more attractive to other healthcare workers, which helps strengthen inter-professional relationships.
What are the core nursing values?
Below are the top five values you need to have a successful and satisfying career in nursing.
Loyalty
As a professional nurse, you must value loyalty to your patients and your job. For instance, you must dedicate yourself to performing all the roles of your job and finishing your patient’s treatment as best as you can.
You can also show your value for loyalty by advocating for patients who require your assistance and trying to resolve each of their medical concerns.
Human dignity
The nursing career demands human dignity for all patients. This professional value allows you to treat all patients as you would treat your loved ones if you were to care for them.
Therefore, you should regard all patients as equal and deserving of the same medical assistance regardless of external factors, such as:
- Sex
- Age
- Political ideologies
- Criminal history
- Social or ethnic factors
- Religious affiliation
Altruism
This nursing value entails being considerate of the wellbeing of colleagues and patients. You can show altruism by encouraging your fellow nurses to take breaks as you step in and attend to patients as best as you can.
This means offering medical care outside your typical nursing duties without expecting something in return for your care or needing to be acknowledged.
Autonomy
This refers to the patient’s right to refuse or accept medical services such as healthcare procedures and treatment.
This nursing value aims to respect but not influence your patient’s medical care choices. It makes patients feel encouraged and at ease to seek other medical care services when they require them.
You can show medical autonomy by educating your patients on the available medical options without being biased.
Empathy
Medical empathy enables you to see a medical situation from your patient’s point of view. This enables you to:
- Give your patient better healthcare.
- Meet your patient’s medical needs.
- Treat your patients and colleagues as you would expect them to treat you.
Also, showing medical empathy while discussing healthcare options and procedures with your patient can help ease their worries.
How do I learn core nursing values?
Learners enrolled in an online nursing program, such as the MSN and DNP available at institutions such as the university of Indianapolis, can take courses designed to incorporate solid nursing values and beliefs.
For instance, you can obtain an understanding of the unique work ethics surrounding specific types of nursing. For example, if you specialize as a family care nurse practitioner, you can fine-tune your skills and values in delivering equal care to patients of all ages and genders, regardless of their religious and cultural backgrounds.
Besides, the nursing values learned through accessible online advanced nursing programs enable you to offer patients a sense of dignity.
However, the process of acquiring professional nursing values is evolutionary and gradual and occurs throughout the nurse’s lifetime.
Conclusion
As a nurse, you are committed to professional growth and lifelong learning. Therefore, understanding and applying core professional nursing values is one of the many proven ways to have a successful and satisfying career in nursing.
Hopefully, the information in this article will help you develop professional values that complement your nursing role.
