Kansas State Board of Nursing Newsletter - June 2019

Page 4 • Kansas Nursing Newsletter June, July, August 2019
Arthur L. Davis Publishing Agency Scholarship Winners
What Does Professionalism in Nursing Mean to Me?
Kristen Crane
Carol Moreland, MSN, RN, Executive
Administrator; JoAnn Klaassen, RN, MN, JD,
Board President; Kristen Crane RN student at
Butler Community College, and her son
"Compassion is that which makes the heart of the
good move at the pain of others. It crushes and destroys
the pain of others (Buddha).” The profession of nursing
is multifaceted, it is both an art and a science; it is being
compassionate and trustworthy, discovering and inquiring.
Being a nurse is being a researcher, an educator, and an
advocate. The professional nurse is all these things, but
the most important role for a nurse is having compassion.
Compassion and truly caring for patients when they tell
you about the day they found out they had stage four
cancer, truly understanding a patient who is in severe pain
who wants to end their life because the pain will not go
away. Not just nodding your head and pretending to hear
because you have to type in the computer while they speak,
or you have 10 other patients who are having problems
and cannot be concerned with them.
Being a compassionate nurse is not always easy, many
nurses can experience compassion burnout. But being a
true professional is giving the same compassion and care
to your 1000 th patient as you did to your first. It was Kathy
Robinson that said, "No technology in health care replaces
the ... warmth of a human heart in healing the sick and
injured ... (Robinson, 2003)." The impact of truly caring
for our patients is astounding; it can truly heal. There is a
theoretical framework for caring in nursing: Jean Watson's
Philosophy and Science of Caring. This theory describes
caring as being curative, she calls it "carative." Watson's
eighth carative process is concerned with creating an
authentic healing environment where the nurse is truly
caring for the patient on all levels of mind, body, spirit
(Watson, 2007). While being a compassionate and caring
nurse is the most important characteristic a nurse must have
through even the toughest of moments, being trustworthy
is essential.
Nurses have maintained their trustworthiness for
decades. According to the Gallup Poll nursing has been
the most trusted profession every year since 1999, except
in 2000 when it was firefighters because of 911 (Brenan,
2017). The 2017 results of the poll showed 82% of those
polled ranked nurses as being “very high” as far as honesty
Nursing License Renewal Schedule
If your license expires on:
(Please refer to the Check
Status of Expiration to verify
your expiration date.)
You should receive your yellow
renewal notice postcard by:
June 30, 2019 April 15, 2019 May 15, 2019
July 31, 2019 May 15, 2019 June 15, 2019
August 31, 2019 June 15, 2019 July 15, 2019
September 30, 2019 July 15, 2019 August 15, 2019
Your properly completed
renewal application should be
in the Board office by:
October 31, 2019 August 15, 2019 September 15, 2019
November 30, 2019 September 15, 2019 October 15, 2019
Nursing Careers at Brandon Woods at Alvamar
RN, LPN
New nurses welcome! New training program!
Brandon Woods is a
progressive senior living
community in Lawrence,
KS that values our Team
Members and fosters a
family oriented, fun and
caring environment. Our
nursing professionals
like working at Brandon
Woods.
Here’s what they like the most:
• Resident-Centered care and service philosophy and practices that
promote quality care
• Dining Services that offer a variety of great choices available
throughout the day and night
• Dynamic learning environment with ties to University of Kansas,
Geriatric Resource Specialist Program and other continuing
education opportunities
• Great pay and benefits
• Consistent, caring leadership that enhances personal growth
Brandon Woods at Alvamar
1501 Inverness Drive
Lawrence, KS 66047
Apply online: http://careers.fivestarseniorliving.com
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer: MIN/FEM/VETS/DIS
Drug Free, Smoke Free Workplace
Located in Manhattan, KS
Looking for RN’s and LPN’s to join our team!
WE LOVE OUR NURSES!
House Nurse
Come work in a supportive environment where you can
utilize your nursing skills and make a difference in the lives
of residents, families and team members! Meadowlark is a
local not-for-profit organization focused on enhancing senior
lifestyles. We want you to join our growing team of employees
who are our most valuable asset to achieving our mission of
providing high-quality, person-centered care.
Nurses at Meadowlark have a unique opportunity to create
genuine relationships with residents while developing their
nursing skills. Don’t miss the chance to take advantage of
our flexible scheduling, favorable staff to resident ratio and
competitive wages. To work as a nurse at Meadowlark, you
must have a valid Kansas Nursing License.
Call our Human Resources team at (785) 323-3893 to learn
more about the opportunity to work with a passionate and
people-focused organization. We’d love to have you visit!
You can also learn more about Meadowlark, our
history, additional job opportunities or apply at
www.meadowlark.org.
and ethical standards. It is possible that nurses were most
trusted prior to 1999, but that was the first year that they
were polled. Nurses maintain their trustworthiness because
of the nature of the profession. This poll shows that nurses
are trusted more than medical doctors, pharmacists,
clergy, politicians, firefighters, judges and so on. It is no
surprise since the nature of nursing is meant to be on the
human level. We are taught in nursing school therapeutic
communication and to ensure psychological safety of our
patients. Even the nursing diagnoses are centered around
the human being and their response to health issues,
whereas the medical diagnoses just deal with the disease
(Herdman, 2012). The professional nurse knows that their
profession is centered around the human being and how
important the nurse-patient relationship is. The human
aspect of nursing is as important as being able to think
critically in dire moments.
My definition of critical thinking is an ability to find a
solution or outcome utilizing a database of evidence and
experience, analyzing the data pertinent to a situation and
making a judgment based on intellectual, focused scientific
reasoning. A professional nurse must be able to think
critically in all moments because there are lives at stake.
We either directly or indirectly will have a huge impact on
whether or not someone lives or dies because of illness
or health. Facione and Facione (1996) developed some
characteristics essential for a nurse to have in order to be a
critical thinker. These characteristics include: inquisitiveness,
systematicity, analyticity, truth seeking, open-mindedness,
self-confidence, and maturity. It is imperative that a
professional nurse develop these characteristics if they do
not already have them.
Nursing transcends traditional medicine from being
about disease management to being about health
management. The nursing professional’s contribution to
healthcare is diverse in nature. To me, professionalism in
nursing means being compassionate and caring, honest
and trustworthy, inquisitive and truth-seeking, with a
passion for giving every patient human centered care.
References
Gallup, I. (2017). Nurses Keep Healthy Lead as Most
Honest, Ethical Profession. Retrieved from https://
news.gallup.com/poll/224639/nurses-keep-healthylead-honest-ethical-profession.aspx
Herdman, H. (2012). What is the difference between
a medical diagnosis and a nursing diagnosis? I
NANDA International Knowledgebase. Retrieved
from http://kb.nanda.org/mticle/AA-00266/0/Whatis-the-difference-between-a-medical-diagnosisand-a-nursing-diagnosis-.html
Watson, J. (2007). Theory of human caring (pp.141-
184). Denver: Watson Caring Science Institute.
Retrieved 10/5/2018 from https:/ /www
.watsoncaringscience.org/files/PDF /watsonstheory
of-human-caring-core-concepts-and.-
evolution-to-caritas-processes-handout.pdf
Robinson, K. (2003). Technology can’t replace compassion
in health care. Nursing2018, 33, l.
Facione, N.C., & Facione, P.A. (1996). Externalizing the
critical thinking in knowledge development and
clinical judgement. Nursing Outlook, 44, 129-136.
RNs, LPNs, CNAs
Now Hiring in Prairie Village, KS
www.claridgecourt.com