of course is a profession.

For myself nursing is a profession.  I feel a deep commitment to the patients under my care, whether they are assigned to me or simply admitted on my floor, or anywhere in my hospital.  I have the training to do the work and the knowledge and understanding to do it safely and well.  I feel the drive to try my best to care for not only the patient's diagnosis but also his/her fears, emotions, and other needs, along with the family who's hovering at the bedside nervously waiting on any news.  However, I also believe that as in many other professions, there are those who enter into the nursing field who view it only as a job and treat it as such. 

Clearly, nursing is a calling and a distinct profession, especially registered nurses. Anyone who goes to go through so much educational preparation, personal sacrifice, numerous clinicals, HESI exam to obtain nursing deree, NCLEX to obtain nursing license, and cannot have any blemishes on your criminal background must be the nursing profession! Registered nurses are the ones everyone turns to, the hub of the healthcare wheel. I carry myself as a professional which further promotes our nursing profession and registered nurses. We cannot let the stress of the moment to erode our professionalism as we are modeling professional behaviors to others who work side by side with us. Affiliation with professional organizations is yet another way to further our profession and clearly be recognized as high-esteemed medical professionals.

 Nursing is a profession. All of the nurses no matter what your level of achievement is we all are professionals.

A professional nurse uses her education and knowledge to make independent decisions and to react to patient problems and effect outcomes.  In a trade, one is trained to follow a certain procedure for a particular situation.  Nurses are professionals.

" It is most certainly a profession. People who truly enjoy taking care of people of all ages may consider nursing,

   " a profession", though their are many that consider," only the select few, professional,"( RN,not LPN).

      " Over the course of many years, I have worked with and encountered several persons,fortunate enough

       to be in positions of leadership,however, should have never been allowed the opportunity to do so.

        ( "I will spare the details".) There are numerous persons who have proven their worth,with regards to ,

        " going above and beyond the call of duty,exceptional in performance,yet they were lucky enough to be,

        "given a comforting smile or thank you".The true professional,( RN / LPN / CNA ), who does their job,

         is clearly visible on the unit and ," takes the initiative,helping when help is needed", is the professional."

 It is a profession

Keith Kohl

in my opion, it can be a profession, but really it's a trade.  I work in a hospital & the nurses of course are going to say it's a profession, but to me it's a trade only because if u see what i see only a few can consider themselves professional.  i'm not a nurse, but the only thing i don't do is  pass meds.  i do trach care, bandage changes, work with hospice in comfort care, ekgs, draw am labs (blood).  am & pm care. Most nurses that i see can't even put in an iv.  They call the iv team or to draw blood they call me.  Patient care associate.(pca).  The nurses are to buzy doing care plans & paper work to cover there buts when it comes to giving meds.  Some are even being investigated for taking the meds themselves.  So u will see only the nurses themselves think it's a profession, but me a pca think that most nurses only get in the profession for the money because it's the shortest corse of school 2 yrs. not realizing the work it really involves.  I see nurses breaking down and crying, walking off the job, because they just can't handle the work load of having a full work load of 6,7,or 8 patients at a time.  for chris sake what the hell did they expect when they took on the job of being a nurse?

Nursing is definitly a profession!  Otherwise, almost anyone could hold themselves out to be a nurse!  After years of stydying and doing one should consider themselves a professional and act like one.

Staffing issues begin with not having enough support staff to do real nursing (if an RN has to give a bath, change a wound dressing and administer medications, teach the patient, interpret doctor's orders, transcribe the orders, double check pharmacy's transcription of the MAR, call the results of reports to the doctor, AND still be liable for the patient's safety when the one responsible for the mistake is off the hook for not being the last person in the line sure makes nursing attractive, huh! Wonder why there's a nursing shortage.  Add to that a decrease in the quality of the education of nurses, its no wonder we have seen and increase in errors by nurses! In response to errors automated systems, bar-coding etc has been implemented.  Instead of increasing the knowlege base and supporting nurses,  we are relying on automation - soon all you will need is a bar code and a computer and a body - doesn't sound like the move is to make nurses a profession...BURNED OUT

It is, of course, a profession. A profession which has yet to come in to its own. By this I refer to the need for a National Nursing License, in the same way that we have ONE U.S. Passport, ONE Drivers' License which allows one to move freely from state to state and finally, the need for a strong and unified national nursing association which seizes the same political and social power which doctors grabbed so long ago. The American Medical Association was referred to by the Wall Street Journal 30 years ago as 'one of the most powerful LABOR UNIONS in America.' There is no reason that nurses should not attain the same distinction to replace the divisiveness which 'keeps us down' from being recognized in the same fashion as is our rightful due if only we could admit that we must stick together in order to achieve the status that we deserve.

A Trade plain and simple. How many other "professionals" are paid hourly, get called off at the drop of a hat, and basically perform "tasks" all day long? Wake up people we are a Trade and should be unionized so that we have a say in how things go. One other thing about this article ticks me off, when I was an LPN I wasn't a nurse, now that I have an Assoc. degree the article implies that Im less of a nurse than someone with a BSN. Please tell me when I will be a "real nurse" because obviously up til now I have spent a lot of money for nothing.........Nurses: "Responsible for everything, with power over nothing"

Thank you, Captain for that info. I'm sure a lot of us were not aware of the legal definitions.  You always have such great info to share with all of us!

I looked up the definitions of both in Merriam-Websters dictionary, here is what I found

Profession:  a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation

                        a principal calling, vocation, or employment

Trade:   the business or work in which one engages regularly : occupation

               an occupation requiring manual or mechanical skill : craft

               the persons engaged in an occupation, business, or industry 

Based on these definitions, I would be inclined to say that nursing is a professional trade.  Clearly nursing takes intensive academic  preparation and is a calling, but it is also an occupation that requires manual skill and is a craft.  Not everyone is cut out to be a nurse, and how many times have we heard people say, "Oh, you're a nurse??  I could never do that!"