Reflective journal entry for Concept:  Professionalism

Professionalism

Nursing is a discipline where practitioners abide by a strict code of ethical, moral, and legal conduct. Admittedly, one of the major roles of nursing bodies is the enforcement of these professional standards of practice. I got a chance to observe professional nursing in practice during my clinical rotation. At the same time, I experienced the implication of failing to abide by these rules as one of the nurses lost his job due to negligence. The most striking event in my practice was the implementation of the protection of patient privacy protocol. A patient walked in for diabetes screening. The tests conducted showed that the patient was diabetic for close to five months. On further assessment, the patient disclosed that he had lost significant body weight and was experiencing sexual dysfunction. He, however, urged the nurse to keep the diagnosis a secret until when he was ready to disclose the disease to his family. A week later, his wife came to the hospital asking whether the test revealed any medical condition. The nurse on duty exercised his professional ethics and declined to share this information in line with the patient’s wishes. The nurse asked the relative to come back later with her husband for counseling.

This scenario is a typical case of professional conduct. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects patient data from undue exposure. Under this policy, the patient must give consent for disclosure even to a close family member (Kayaalp, 2018). Student nurses also should exercise professional practice. One study shows that nursing students who embrace professional conduct develop better patient care skills (Aktas & Karabulut, 2017). While in the wards, I came across patient files with medical data in them. I however emulated the nurses there while abiding by the legal, moral, and ethical principles guiding nursing practice.