Discuss The Importance Of Professional Values And Behaviors Within Your Own Field Of Practice

PORTFOLIO ESSAY 3 SECTIONS
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Discuss the importance of professional values and behaviors within your own field of practice
Professional values are the principles that guide your decisions and actions in your career.in medicine, they include integrity, compassion, altruism, continuous improvement, excellence and ability to partner with members of the wider healthcare team. They are designed to underpin the medicine profession and form the moral contract between healthcare service providers and the society CITATION Seg12 \l 1033 (Segen's Medical Dictionary, 2012). Values change and in some countries such as the UK, the regulatory body includes lay representatives who judge professional conduct CITATION Jil12 \l 1033 (Thistlethwaite, 2012). The main reason why they are structured enforcement framework on professional values is because they greatly affect the quality of care accorded to the public. Hence, this section will explicate why professional values and behaviors are important to nursing.
One of the professional values nurses must adhere to is the autonomy of the patient. The nurse must respect the choices of the patient at all times. If the patient is a child and or is mentally unstable and cannot make rational decisions about his/her body and health, the nurse has to use the authority of a surrogate or an attorney. The work of the nurse is only to provide facts about the condition(s) and let the client, their surrogate or attorney make the decisions for them. This removes the bias the nurses might have which they might want to put across because they are ‘in the best interest of the patient.’ The nurse might be knowing what is right for the patient but he/she cannot decide for the patient. Therefore, professional values which must be inculcated and cultivated by each nurse help in suppressing individual biases that stem from the nurse’s emotional attachment to the patient and wishing to do what he/she thinks will help the patient.
Professional values establish clear expectations on what the employee ought to do CITATION Dan181 \l 1033 (Weberg, Porter-O'Grady, Mangold, & Malloch, 2018). There are instances when there is a grey area in what the employee can do. Using the professional values, the grey area is eliminated as it stipulates clearly what the nurse can do or has to do in such instances. Having clear expectations on what a person has to do reduces the uncertainty in making decisions and professional values and behaviors in the workplace help establish these expectations CITATION Lin19 \l 1033 (Kramer, 2019). Additionally, they offer guidance on how to proceed with ay case. Different cases have different approaches and therefore the professional is guided by the professional values to avoid making mistakes. For example, the principle of social justice, a healthcare provider has to ensure that they accord help to anyone who needs their services.
They also promote excellence. The values are standardized and are coined after careful analysis of the nature of the work of the profession. They are then structured to guide the professionals to bring the best out of them. After many years these professional values have proven to help the healthca...