Is nursing really a profession?

2 Is nursing just a calling, is it a profession or a trade?
http://allnurses.com/nursing-activis...sion-9834.htmlPerhaps you could do a search on this topic. There are countless threads that address this issue on AllNurses.

Quote from ohiostudent'11http://allnurses.com/nursing-activis...sion-9834.htmlPerhaps you could do a search on this topic. There are countless threads that address this issue on AllNurses.

Quote from RN Marx02Is nursing just a calling, is it a profession or a trade?

Quote from EJMYour opinion on the topic would help better than linking to a thread from 2001 with only one reply. Nursing is a wonderful profession.

Quote from ohiostudent'11The author of the '2001 thread with one reply' was very eloquent in giving the differences. The point of my post was that including the example given, there are countless threads that address this issue.

I see you have just joined us. Why do you ask?I was not 'called'. I was a volunteer on an ambulance corps in 1971, and wanted to know what happened to the people we brought to the E.R. I believe I was always professional!!!

Not too long ago I would have told you it certainly was NOT. I can still ramble more than a few reasons why it doesn't exactly fit the mold (going by the definition given by Sociology). What I've come to believe is that it most certainly is a profession, and that I just don't agree with how we currently define our hold on said title. Nursing diagnosis and care plans just don't give the whole picture and often devalue nursing by turning it into an over simplified, reactive list of "interventions". They were created for students as a learning tool and somehow became our "core, individual knowledge base". I also think a great many of Nursing's greatest theorists are misquoted/poorly interpreted by the general public, with Florence Nightingale being the one who they miss the point with the most. I decided recently to return to school. In some ways, I think I can be an agent of change. No one wants to hear what an ADN trained nurse has to say about the state of nursing as a whole, regardless of your experiences. I may find I have no more voice as a nurse with a higher degree, but maybe I can put myself in a position to initiate some form of change for the better. You never know until you try.

It's neither, it's a duck! http://allnurses.com/general-nursing...ck-491956.htmlSorry, Erik, I just couldn't help myself!

Quote from nursej22It's neither, it's a duck! http://allnurses.com/general-nursing...ck-491956.htmlSorry, Erik, I just couldn't help myself!

If j22 hadn't pointed the OP towards that brilliant thread, I would have.Nursing is defined as a profession because it fulfills the requirements of the definition of a profession. It is composed of a specific body of knowledge, with rules of professional practice, requirement to be registered/enrolled as a nurse, legal scope of practice as defined by law, controlled by a governing body. Certainly this description may also be applied to artisans, but there is (in my area of the globe anyway) far less control over the practice of trades than there is over the practice of nursing. Like, anyone with a monkey wrench can do your plumbing but no organization can employ someone as a nurse without the necessary documentation from the Nursing Council (or Board of Nursing, as you call it).Whether nurses are regarded as professionals by either the public or the members of other professions is another question entirely.

Quote from EJMYour opinion on the topic would help better than linking to a thread from 2001 with only one reply.

Quote from nursej22It's neither, it's a duck! http://allnurses.com/general-nursing...ck-491956.htmlSorry, Erik, I just couldn't help myself!