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Professional identity in nursing, experiencing global growth, is being integrated into the nursing school curriculum (University of Kansas Medical Center, 2022). It is defined as “that sense of self in relationship to others, influenced by the characteristics, norms and values of the nursing discipline, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a nurse” (Godfrey & Young, 2021, p. 363). Consisting of four domains—values and ethics, knowledge, the nurse as leader, and professional comportment—professional identity in nursing is critical to the foundation, growth, and flourishing of all nurses. It is influenced by one's personal identity and unique background and throughout the continuum of one's nursing education and career. This column focuses on values and ethics, and the American Nurses Association (ANA) provides guidance for nurse values and ethics through the Code of Ethics (ANA, 2015).
Values and ethics, a set of core values and principles, are used to guide conduct (University of Kansas Medical Center, 2022) and provide a framework for the professional development specialist to teach nurses about this important domain. The fundamentals of values and ethics can be taught while providing examples of thinking, acting, and feeling like a nurse. This is the third of four columns as we continue to discuss the domains of professional identity in nursing.
The ANA has identified the following as core values for nursing: caring, compassion, presence, trustworthiness, diversity, acceptance, and accountability. Throughout this column, these values are interwoven and aligned with professional identity in nursing, which includes integrity, caring, and empathy. The values of nursing are further clarified through the principles and provisions of the ANA Code of Ethics (ANA, 2015).
The concept of ethics in nursing, as guided by the ANA Code of Ethics, has four main principles: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and nonmaleficence. Based on a 2020 study, researchers determined nurses lack understanding about autonomy and its impact on patient care (Rouhi-Balasi et al., 2020). The study described two specific types of nurse autonomy: clinical autonomy and autonomy over nursing practice.
Clinical autonomy is necessary first, allowing nurses to make decisions and judgments about patient care.
Autonomy over nursing practice allows nurses to make decisions about practice settings, including organization...