Week 2

Unit 2: Socialization to professional nursing: 

Nursing is a complex enterprise that is often confusing to its own practitioners, as well as to the public.
Defining nursing assists people to grasp its nuances, many of which are not readily observable. Nursing benefits
when journalists, public policy makers, insurers, other health care professionals, and the public, among others,
understand what it is that nurses do. 

Socialization: can be defined simply as the process by which people

(a) learn to become members of groups and society and

(b) learn the social rules defining relationships into which they will enter.

Socialization involves learning to behave, feel, and see the world in a manner similar to other persons occupying the same role as
oneself

The goal of professional socialization is to instill in individuals the norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors deemed essential for
survival of the profession.

Goals of socialization 
1. Is the development of professionalism. 
2. Simply teaching think like a nurse 
3. To see the world of health care
4. And to respond to the effects of both educational and clinical experiences by developing professionalism.

This process requires that students internalize, or take in,

1. new knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors.
2. values, and ethical standards and make these a part of professional identity. 

professional socialization: is a process of internalization and development or modification of an occupational

identity. it begins during the period students are in formal nursing programs and continues as they practice in
“the real world.” 
Learning any new role is derived from a mixture of formal and informal socialization, Learning in kindergarten
that there are particular ways to behave in class, times to sit quietly and times to play, ways to get the teacher’s
attention, and ways that you did not want to get the teacher’s attention. learned the unwritten rules of being a
student. In nursing, formal socialization includes:
1. classroom 
2. Lectures
3. Assignments
4. and laboratory experiences taught by faculty, such as:

1. Planning nursing care, 

2. Writing a paper on professional ethics,
3. learning steps of a physical examination of a healthy child,
4. starting an intravenous line,
5. practicing communication skills with a psychiatric patient, or spending time with a mentor.
• Formal socialization proceeds in an orderly, building-block fashion, such that new information is based on
previous information. For that reason, more advanced nursing students are often encouraged to manage a larger
number of patients than they did as novice students, when their skills were fewer and less tested.
• Informal socialization includes lessons that occur incidentally, such as the unplanned observation of a nurse
teaching a young mother how to care for her premature infant, participating in a student nurse association, or
hearing nurses discuss patient care in the nurses’ lounge.
• Part of professional socialization is simply absorbing the culture of nursing, that is, the rites, rituals, and
valued behaviors of the profession.
This requires that students spend enough time with nurses in work settings for adequate exposure to the
nursing culture to occur.
Most nurses agree that informal socialization experiences were often more powerful and memorable than
formal socialization in their own development. 
Learning a new vocabulary is also part of professional socialization. Each profession has its own jargon
that is generally not well understood by outsiders.

During the early days of practice, most graduate nurses quickly realize that the ideals taught in school
are difficult to achieve in everyday practice.
This is largely a result of time constraints, and it produces feelings of conflict and even guilt. In school, students
are taught to spend time with patients and to consider their emotional as well as physical needs.
In practice, the emphasis may seem to be on finishing tasks and documentation. Talking with patients, engaging
in patient teaching, or counseling family members may not be considered a central part of practice.
In the early days of professional practice, having time to do comprehensive, individualized nursing care
planning, a staple of life for nursing students, may seem like an unrealistic luxury.
Establishing positive relationships with new colleagues can have a long-lasting impact on effectiveness in work
setting. An interesting suggestion is to “listen to gossip.” This can help determine who is integral to the culture
of the unit and give insight into the behaviors or responses of co-workers. 
Participating in malicious gossip is unprofessional and hurtful to others, but being aware of comments that give
insight into new colleagues can help understand the culture of the unit more quickly. 

Education and professional socialization

Nursing faculty are concerned with creating educational experiences that encourage and facilitate the transition
from student to professional nurse. How does a student make the transition from a novice struggling to
understand what is going on to a person who thinks and feels like a nurse. 
Socialization to the work setting
When nurses graduate, professional socialization is not over. In fact, the intensity of their socialization is likely
to increase as their exposure to nursing and the culture of nursing increases. Most experts believe that
socialization, similar to learning, is a lifelong activity.

The transition from student to professional nurse is another of life’s challenges, and, similar to most challenges,
is one that helps people grow. Just about the time that students become well socialized to the culture of the
educational setting, they graduate and face socialization to a work setting.

Most new nursing graduates feel somewhat unprepared and overwhelmed with the responsibilities of their first
positions. Although agencies that employ new graduates realize that the orientation period will take time,
graduates may have unrealistic expectations of themselves and others. 

Speed of functioning is another area in which new nurses vary widely. By the end of a well-planned orientation,
new graduates should be able to manage an average patient load without too much difficulty. 
Time management is a skill that is closely related to speed of functioning. Managing time well means managing
well and requires self-discipline.
The ability to organize and prioritize nursing care for a group of patients is the key to good time management. 
Once have established good time management skills, they will carry over to practice setting.
New nurses also must adapt to collaborating with other nursing care personnel, such as unlicensed assistive
personnel (e.g., nursing assistants, patient care technicians) and other unlicensed persons whose help
is very important in caring for patients.
Some nurses will find this uncomfortable when they are unaccustomed to delegating, are unsure of the abilities
of others, or believe only they can provide quality care.

ref. PROFESSIONAL NURSING: CONCEPTS & CHALLENGES 119

Issues in socialization. Professional associations