LABELS

Who is a nurse? Tough question to answer outright, right? Why is that? Do we have a standard way of providing a response to this question? A response that cuts across all domains i.e, we the nurses and the members of the public. Are you a nurse? How does it make you feel? Is it a decision that you are happy about?


 To be frank it is a decision that I question once in a while and upon discussing this with other colleagues, I have realized I am not alone in this. A more in-depth look into this feeling made me realize why. It is because of one thing the nurses'image.

Wondering what that is?

Nurses image is the perception that we have towards our profession. It is greatly influenced by two things
i) What we think of ourselves and
ii) What the public thinks of us.
 Is this important? Yes, it is. The nurses' image influences all aspects of our careers. Some of these aspects include our remuneration, our roles or our perceived roles, the language used towards us, the conduciveness of our work environments, etc. Still not clear. Let me further elucidate: Please follow this link to get the article that prompted this week's blogpost https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jan.12177. A lot of the concepts are borrowed heavily from it.

The image of nurses is often generated from lots of misconceptions and stereotypes. Some of the most common ones are angels of mercy, the doctor’s handmaiden, battleaxe and sexy nurse. This is often due to images propagated by the media industry through novels, films, newspaper articles etc. In addition to this the nursing image is often linked to feminity and this makes the male nurses at times to feel left out. Interested to learn more about this. There are so many journal articles available. Take the time to explore below are some links
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/23/health-warning-why-the-sexy-nurse-stereotype-is-no-laughing-matter
https://www.nursingtimes.net/roles/nurse-educators/the-image-of-nursing-the-naughty-nurse-20-10-2010/


Over the recent years primarily from the 20th century into this 21st century, there has been an ongoing evolution in the profession. More studies are being done on understanding the nursing image and what it really means to us the professionals. Such growth also needs to be felt in our continent and we need to take an active role in it.  Over the past week, I have been analyzing some literature on this topic and came across some eye-openers;

How does the public view nurses?
NB: These are sentiments among a group of people it is not a representation of the whole population

1. A mediocre profession

I am sure that every one of us has felt this/witnessed this at some point in their career. It is often either through actions or words. Some people view it as a low‐status profession that is subordinate to the work of physicians, a profession that does not require any academic qualifications and a profession that lacks professional autonomy. Is it the case? This would make for such a great debate right? Does this perception affect our work environment. In my head I can hear all of you answer with a resounding yes.

2. Feminine profession

Randomly search for images of a nurse on the world wide web. What is the ratio of female to male nurses? Go further and explore it within our continent what do you find? In our set up this is mainly due to several factors have we investigated the why?


3. We care

In essence, we are caring but from the public perspective its often in an unprofessional light. Read more on angel of mercy and soon you may comprehend why we should challenge that school of thought. I am not saying don't be caring am just saying do not let it be used against you. Please follow the link for such example,

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0103-21002007000300009&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt

4. An invisible profession

Within our continent how frequently do we nurses make it into our daily news in a positive light? If we were truly honest with ourselves, we can be quick to acknowledge that it rarely happens. Our profession is almost always highlighted when our errors are been publicly highlighted or more often when we are holding strikes.

 Is this really helping us be taken more seriously, No!
What then can we do about it? Here are my top three thoughts. More suggestions are highly appreciated.

1. Enhance our visibility


a) We should aim to take up more active roles within our organizations and outside our organization. It is not about taking up roles blindly but rather matching gained academic knowledge with actions. Israelmore Ayivor, in a leadership forum once said “Make your education valuable. Apply what you learned. Refuse to take the back seat and watch things happen. Join the change and be part of the change.”

 For us to make great strides we need to enhance our potential to venture into unexplored territories. One such way is through education. By seeking to enhance our knowledge and skills we place ourselves at better positions to break away from our defined roles and work towards enhancing our scope of practice eg

•  Studying medical law it can help us generate better laws that can protect us as nurses
• Joining different boards and being key stakeholders in decisions that affect how organizations are run
• Aiming for top positions such as Minister of health, health PS; this can help change and adopt policies that would enhance our work environments.etc.

The opportunities are limitless we just have to stop accepting mediocrity.

b) Utilize social media

Fortunately, we have experienced great growth in our telecommunications industry and it is finally time to use it to our advantage. However, as we choose to do so we should also aim to effectively and efficiently use it to uphold beneficence and non-maleficence within our profession. This blog is one such forum, other forums include twitter pages such as https://twitter.com/WeNurses, using Whatsapp groups to actively communicate our professionalism and healthcare contribution roles, etc.

2. Curriculum modification


We should aim to seek the adoption of curriculums that put greater emphasis on our performance and our empowerment. This will then have a ripple effect on the areas we are involved. Debasish Mridha said, that“A true leader leads by empowering not by enslaving.”

3. Own our profession


Despite the numerous hurdles we encounter we shouldn't resign to the images castigated upon us. We should rather actively chose to always project and protect a positive image through our look, deeds, and words.

Being loud does not automatically make one an effective communicator and in the recent past, this has been an error we have made during the selection of our leaders. We need to re-educate ourselves on whom an effective leader is. Once we do that we shall be able to analyze our problems in depth and work hand in hand with these individuals bringing change to our profession. It begins with you and me.

Lastly, we can only get better, we just have to actively participate and comprehend that 2020 being the year of the nurse and midwife is a great opportunity to challenge the perceptions of nursing for a better tomorrow.