Nursing Profession in Australia 1

ARRIVAL OF NURSING PROFESSION IN AUSTRALIA Written by [writers name]

Presented to [mentors name] In partial fulfilment of the requirements of [program name]

[Date]

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ARRIVAL OF NURSING PROFESSION IN AUSTRALIA Nursing in Australia has finally claimed its place among the Australian Professions list. This simple statement is in actuality the recognition of the occupation of nursing, and integration of it according to Australian laws into its challenged health service. Nursing profession has contributed for centuries in the Australian health care system. However, its further development and need in the Australian health care sector was highlighted via the Competency Standards Document of 2002 (Keleher, Joyce, Parker & Piterman, 2007). This document outlined the improved nursing practices and domains in four areas; professional and ethical practice, critical thinking and analysis, management of care and enabling respectively, thus demanding the need for stronger role and appreciation in the healthcare sector (Koutoukidis, Stainton & Hughson, 2012). Nursing now falls into the health professions broad categories which include the following: Nurse managers Nurse educators and researchers Registered nurses, midwives, mental health nurses Registered developmental disability nurses (Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, 1997) Another category of nursing professionals is considered in the Health and Welfare Associate Professionals Groups named enrolled nurses. The new nursing model has emerged after 200 years of nursing professional competence based on clinical and theoretical models. Some of the most influencing nursing models include theories of Henderson, Roy, Johnson and Orem respectively (Koutoukidis, Stainton & Hughson, 2012).

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The influences of the society, changing scientific and medical trends and economic factors had created a pressing need for the establishment of nursing as a profession (Halcomb, Patterson and Davidson, 2006). The nursing profession for quite some time suffered in silence behind the medical profession. Its contributions were considered lesser than that of medical researchers and doctors (Brennan & Timmins, 2012). With the implementation of research culture in the nursing profession, and some progressive nurses taking on more active managerial leads, nursing now is an established domain in its own right (Potempa, Daly & Titler, 2012). The role of the nurses is particularly valued for the intense human interaction and care provided to the patients. Nursing care extends to the patients, elderly, mentally ill, mothers, babies, various community health care centres and community health care projects respectively (Brennan & Timmins, 2012). Each of these clients have their own inherent requirements, challenges and skills and core competency set needed to create professional levels of nursing care (Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, 1997). So what are the paradigms that differentiate professions from occupations and vice versa? A recent research by Aguilar et al in 2012 researched what professionalism is and its paradigms through use of Delphi technique (Aguilar et al, 2012). The reached a consensus that professionalism is the ability of the practitioners of that particular profession to demonstrate professional behaviours and attitudes consistent with that field of service (Aguilar et al, 2012). Overall, these attitudes comprise of 61 behavioural and professional traits (Aguilar et al, 2012). Many changes in the local as well as international nursing and health care front have led to the evolution of nursing as a profession (Hanson & Hamric, 2003). The intertwining of the academic and clinical fronts through the clinical bridge model in Australia is one important contributor (Potempa, Daly & Titler, 2012). This milestone work identified the key

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differences in the many subspecialties of nursing, their definitions and subtypes (Hanson & Hamric, 2003). This in turn identifies professional development, specific job descriptions and job specifications within each subtype (Potempa, Daly & Titler, 2012).This model is in alignment with the shift in future nursing trends. CONCLUSION Nurses now are more of critical thinkers rather than followers of orders or physical representations of a traditional health care system (Brennan & Timmins, 2012). The embracing of a more research and education oriented thought process has directly resulted in creating a new level of nursing, thereby justifying nursing professionalism (Brennan & Timmins, 2012).

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REFERENCES Aguilar, A., Stupans, I., Scutter, S. and King, S. (2012), Towards a Definition of Professionalism in Australian Occupational Therapy: Using the Delphi Technique to Obtain Consensus on Essential Values and Behaviours. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12017 Australian Bureau of Statistics (1997). Australian Standard Classification of Occupations ASCO 1220, Second Edition, Canberra, Australia. Site last accessed on February 10th, 2013 from http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/A86A0162E6F672DFCA256ADB001D10D4/$File/asco.p df Brennan D and Timmins F, 2012. Changing Institutional Identities of the Student Nurse. Nurse Education Today Vol 32, Issue 7, pp. 747-751. Halcomb E J, Patterson E and Davidson P M, 2006. Evolution of Practice Nursing in Australia. Journal of Advance Nursing Vol. 55, Issue 3, pp. 376-388. Hanson C M and Hamric A B, 2003. Reflections on The Continuing Evolution of Advanced Practice Nursing.

Nursing Outlook Vol. 51, Issue 5, 203-211.

Helen K, Joyce C M, Parker R and Piterman L, 2007. Practice Nurses in Australia: Current Issues and Future Directions. The Medical Journal of Australia ; 187(2): 108-110. Kathleen Potempa, John Daly, and Marita G. Titler (2012). Building the Clinical Bridge to Support Nursing Effectiveness Science. Nursing Research and Practice, doi:10.1155/2012/194147 Koutoukidis G, Stainton K and Hughson J (2012). Tabbners Nursing Care: Theory and Practice. Elsevier Australia: Sixth Edition.