Professional Nursing Case Study

ANA defines Professional nursing as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (ANA, 2010, p. 10). In order to gain professional competency and integrity amongst the nursing care professionals, certain guidelines should be stipulated, which can direct the nursing care towards growth. For example, to develop policies, set standards and regulations for nursing practice, to maintain a thorough system for licensure and certification of nurses, accreditation procedure and to postulate and monitor the code of ethics.

The four aims of nursing profession are to promote health and well-being, restore health, prevent illness and to facilitate coping with disability or death. Nurses should adhere to these values and norms as a part of their routine nursing care. To maximize care, the code of ethics for the nursing profession sets an ethical standard and provides the guidelines for decision making.

There are nine codes of ethics given by the ACA in The Provision of Code of Nurses with Interpretive Statements.

The fourth provision consists of the authority, accountability and responsibility of the nurses. Since the scope of nursing practice is continuously evolving, it is of utmost importance to make decisions and take actions by accepting responsibility to promote health and provide optimal care for all. Accountability comes from moral values such as loyalty, integrity, selfless service, beneficence, and respect for dignity of the patients and following the scope and standards of nursing practice. Another role of nursing in the fourth provision includes authority of the nurses in coordinating care, delegating and evaluating nursing