Florence Nightingale was 206 years ago of opinion that Nursing is not a
household sercide or charity service and that nurses should be educated
Nursing today is acknowledged as a profession and the aim of Nursing
Education, as formulated by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) is that
student nurses should be holistically developed.
In contrast to 20 years ago, professional nurses today have to function
autonomously, scientifically, within legal and ethical frameworks as well as
cultural congruently. It is no more expected from professional nurses to only act
on doctorsâ prescriptions, to perform technical procedures or to only observe
patients and record information. They have to practice as independent
practitioners.
In accordance to SANC requirements, students are educated in the science and
art of Nursing, other related sciences as well as Ethics and Professional Practice
(Björkstrom, et al., 2006:505; Davis, Tschudin & de Raeve, 2006:21; Jormsri,
Kunaviktikul, Ketefian & Chaowalit, 2005, intyds; Gastmans, 2002:intyds; Taft,
2000:intyds; Hussey, 1996:251)
When students apply for registration with SANC after they have completed their
studies, they actually declare that they comply with the autonomy, responsibility,
values and norms of Nursing and are prepared to practice accordingly. This
implies that they declare that they have developed a professional identity.
Development of professional identity is an ongoing process and has to be
addressed, amongst others, in the teaching of Ethos and Professional Practice.
The aim of this study was to understand what the nature of Professional Practice
is and to assess the process of teaching of Ethos and Professional Practice at
national level. The research was explorative, descriptive and explainatory in nature and both
quantitative techniques and qualitative techniques were used for gathering of
data. Data gathering was done in different phases, namely analysis of
disciplinary hearings, focus groups, literature analysis as well as telephone
interviews.
The results indicate that the majority of nursing institutions teach the content
appriopriate to SANCâs guidelines. These guidelines were drafted in 1985 and is
currently being revised.
The profile of the students who are entering Nursing has changed. It is therefore
a concern that traditional teaching techniques, such as lectures, class room
discussions as well as written assessment are still mostly used in teaching Ethos
and Professional Practice. These techniques do not improve development of
professional identity. The time allocated to the teaching of [Ethos and]
Professional Practice is problematic if the development of professional identity is
required.
Teaching and following-up of students with regard to [Ethos and] Professional
Practice in the clinical setting was found to be insufficient. Taking this into
account as well as the fact that there are not sufficient positive role models
present, make it impossible for students to develop a professional identity.
Students who do not develop a professional identity have a greater risk of
unprofessional conduct.
A framework, aimed at teaching [Ethos and] Professional Practice in order to
develop a professional identity was compiled. This aimes to enhance
professional conduct.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08052008-102259 |
| Date | 05 August 2008 |
| Creators | Botha, Delene Ellen |
| Contributors | Dr L Roets |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08052008-102259/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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