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Name

Rodney A. Villanueva

Student Number

20113040

Subject

Legal Problems in Nursing

Module

Module 2: Nos. 1,3 & 4 page 19

Professor

Dr. Manuel Alzate Jr.

Deadline

08, Jan. 2013

1. Among the trademarks / attributes of a professional, describe at least five as applied


to a professional nurse practitioner.
There are so many different levels of nursing with such a variety of healthcare
providers. With this, how would you still know who is a nursing professional? Gone are
the days of telltale nursing caps, white pantyhose and dress uniforms. Most nurses
welcome scrubs and crocs with open arms! This leaves many patients, residents or
clients wondering who the professional staff is and who is housekeeping.
This led me to wonder, what makes a nurse professional?
Is it the number of letters after someones name? Is it their position? Is it their personal
qualities and behavior? Can the unit clerk or housekeeper be considered a
professional?
I am sure you have met many "professionals" with fancy titles, lovely offices and more
letters after their name than you have in your own name. Some of whom have left you
with a very sour taste in your mouth after dealing with their unprofessional behaviour.

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So, what does a nursing professional look like? How does it act and behave? How can
we, as nurses, become more professional no matter what or how many letters come
after our name?
A professional looks the part.
Like it or not, the way you dress is important. You can be the sharpest tool in the shed
but if you are covered in dirt, it will be hard for anyone to tell. Professionals spend the
time, money and energy to look the part. Maybe it shouldnt matter, but it does. Sorry.
A professional treats everyone with respect.
Whether it's a colleague, patient, resident, or client, nursing professionals treat
everyone in their nursing practice with dignity and respect. They see value in each
person, no matter how high or low on the totem pole they happen to be. This is not
always an easy thing to do, but it surely is always the right thing to do.
A professional commits to life-long learning.
School is never out for us, whether its "automobile university" (listening to informative
CDs in the car), always having a book on the go, keeping up to date with professional
magazines or websites, attending personal or professional conferences, or simply by
listening and learning from others.
A professional does their best at what they are being paid to do.
They are committed to excellence whether they "feel like it" or not; whether external
circumstances warrant it or not.
Can anyone with the right attitude be a professional in nursing? Yes. Nurses, you may
have specialized nursing skills and training, perhaps more so than your lesser skilled
colleagues. You invested more years in schooling and obtaining nursing education than
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some of your peers. But, what is to be gained by holding yourself high and making
others feel low?
Instead, what if we hold the bar high for everyone? If we treat everyone we work with as
professionals and expect everyone to act like a professional in the realm of what they
do, I would bet my last nickel we wouldnt be disappointed.

3. How can the Board of Nursing help to make the nursing profession truly respected
and recognized by the government and all sectors of the society?
The Philippine Board of Nursing is an administrative body under the Professional
Regulation Commission regulates the practice of nursing in the Philippine with three
primary purpose which is to (1) Provide regulatory standards in the practice of Nursing
by implementing the Nurse Practice Act and by lobbying to Congress any proposed
amendment to any laws with direct relationship to the practice of nursing. (2) Ensure
public safety by administering the Philippine Nursing Licensure Exam (PNLE) to
graduates of nursing schools prior to practice of Registered Nursing in the Philippines
and (3) Maintain high standards of nursing education by auditing the performance of
Philippine Nursing Schools.
Under such directives the BoN can implement with effective and stringent sense to
every nursing school the high standard required of every nursing graduate they produce
and not through sheer marketing strategy. As with such a service-oriented profession,
quality, values and transparency is an ever pressing need to be expounded in all aspect
and fact of the profession. In order to do that upgrading of how nurses are treated and
managed and perceived worth is felt by the nurses themselves. The exodus of nurses
exposed the local opportunities extremely is well below what is offered overseas yet as
nurses we are asked to stay for the good of the country. As with all profession, nursing
is made up of human and susceptible to needs. The current amended of laws upgraded
the nursing profession in the Philippines in such a vast way that it is hoped to retain
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future nurses to stay. Though compared to overseas work, the upgrade should minimize
such exodus and maybe bring the rich experience of aging nurses back to the
Philippines.

4. What is the role of BON to make the Filipino nurses globally competitive and in
demand in the international market?

During the past few decades, the nursing workforce has been in crisis in the United
States and around the world. Many health care organizations in developed countries
recruit nurses from other countries to maintain acceptable staffing levels. The
Philippines is the centre of a large, mostly private nursing education sector and an
important supplier of nurses worldwide, despite its weak domestic health system and
uneven distribution of health workers. This situation suggests a dilemma faced by
developing countries that train health professionals for overseas markets: how do
government officials balance competing interests in overseas health professionals
remittances and the need for well-qualified health professional workforces in domestic
health systems?
In light of such global demand for competitive nurses, the Board of Nursing created the
Committee on Core Competency Standards Development in collaboration with the
Commission on Higher Education Technical Committee on Nursing Education with the
primary goal to develop the competency standards for nursing practice today. The legal
basis is Article 3 Sec. 9 of RA No. 9173 known as the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002
states that the Board shall monitor and enforce quality standards of nursing practice
necessary to ensure the maintenance of efficient, ethical and technical, moral and
professional standards in the practice of nursing taking into account the health needs of
the nation. It is incumbent upon the Board of Nursing therefore to take the lead in the
development and implementation of the competency standards to warrant the health of
the public, maintain public trust and promote the integrity of the nursing profession.
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