Introduction

What professional nursing meeting(s) did you attend and where was it located? If more than one meeting was
attended to complete 3 hours, list all meetings attended; the remainder of the questions can be answered focusing on
one meeting.
I attended a recording that was hosted on zoom and then posted on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing
named A Strong Professional Identity in Nursing: Impact on Education and Practice. The meeting was only an hour
and 12 minutes, so I also attended the following recorded professional meetings, Improving Communication and
Care of Patients with Autism in Healthcare Settings and Nurse Leaders’ Experiences Managing the Clinical
Environment During COVID-19.

Background

Describe the purpose of this professional nursing meeting? Describe the agendas of the group and subgroup. What
type of issues did they address?

The purpose of this professional meeting was to discuss how professional identity in nursing is different than
professionalism and how it can be used to advance patient outcomes. They also spoke on the impact caused by
developing a strong professional identity in nursing can have on both nursing education and practice. Issues they
addressed was the lack of inclusion of nurses with professional identity and spoke about the four domains created
that identify profession identity in nursing which was professional comportment, values and ethics, knowledge, and
nurse as leader. They also spoke about identity as a whole and through a diagram, they showed and explained how
one’s professional identity would not take over one’s personal identity, or the perception of identity itself. They
spoke about how although professional identity is a topic we are focusing on, it does not take an any way a nurse’s
personal identity. They addressed a very important issue that comes with conceptual ideas of identity and how in the
University of Manitoba in Canada, they found that nursing students that came in that were either older or had more
experience came in with ideologies and biases that would affect their perception, so they found that they needed to
deconstruct these biases in order to change their professional identity in nursing. They are also making sure that
these nurses are being formed with the four domains that have been identified. They addressed how for this to work,
nursing faculty need to provide more content or high-level competencies. This is why Professional identity needs to
be reinforced in all settings and all different roles, that is why there is an interconnectivity between practice and
academia. Although this presentation was hosted by the AACN, they did acknowledge at the beginning of the
presentation that this was a collaboration with the AONL, and later in the presentation the collaboration was
identified when they explained some examples of professional identity nursing competencies that nurses can take
that are hosted on the AONL website. At the end of their presentation, they identified that for transformation to
occur, the central position of the four domains needs to be threaded throughout all corners of the nursing profession
in consistently communicated on a broad scale, over time, by all members of the profession with wide support from
professional associations.

Noticing

What did you notice about the professional nursing meeting initially? Describe what you saw, heard and did during
the meeting?

Initially I noticed how everyone who spoke was given an introduction that spoke about who they were and why they
were speaking. Since this meeting was hosted on Zoom, I noticed that only the person speaking was seen by those
watching, all other speakers only came on when it was their turn. For the presenters of the presentation, they
included a slide with their pictures ( in this presentation we had four presenters) and their accreditations/occupation.
During the presentation they spoke about studies conducted that had to do with the topic that was being spoken
about and that contributed to the purpose of the presentation. For example, they spoke about a study done a 2010
that looked at what professionalism in nursing is, and they found that there wasn’t much of a connection to
professionalism and nursing information out there. They also created visuals which made it easy for those watching
the presentation to get an idea of certain topics. For example, when talking about the four domains, they created a
diagram with the topic in the middle and the subgroups that interlined with each other to show how these four topics

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make up the main idea.. I also noticed that one of the presenters only did two slides for content that took over 15
minutes so I preferred the presenter that caps switching the slides and had a lot of visuals so that I could keep up
with the information she was giving. The presenter that that this was giving information that is very important for
this topic which was supporting and fostering professional identity and practice, and I think that this information
could have been given out better in the presentation. I found myself zoning out of what she was saying. I noticed
that to make their argument more impactful, they included exemplars of either article was other information that was
found that accredited professional identity in nursing and talked about what must be done to achieve this image.
They numbered the exemplars at the top of the page. I noticed that at the end of the presentation they came together
to reiterate the goal of the presentation and what must be done to accomplish it. At the end of the presentation, they
also allowed for people to ask questions related to the presentation and gave time for this to occur.

Interpreting

Describe what you thought about the information being discussed. Have you been involved in similar discussion
during your previous student nurse experiences? Describe the similarities and/or differences to those encounters.

Personally, I thought that this presentation is very important to be talked about within the nursing community.
Nurses have always been looked at as caring, thoughtful, honest individuals, and although all of these characteristics
are true, nurses are also professional individuals that contribute a lot to the health care team. For example, they
talked about in one of the surveys that they analyzed how nurses wish that they had more autonomy within the care
that they are providing to patients, and by changing the image that nurses have as a professional, it gives their voices
more strength within the health care team and being looked at as an equal to providers, case managers, pharmacist,
etc. Although I have not been involved in a similar discussion during my student nurse experience, we definitely
have touched on the topic multiple times about our personal biases and making sure that as a nurse we are not
allowing that to conflict on our nursing care and judgment. I think that this still ties into a professional identity
because although we have our personal identities it is important for us when we are nurses to realize our professional
identity and be able to distinguish the two. For example, outside of the hospital our personalities may be very
different than when we are in the hospital as nurses, to cater to the needs of our patients. Although I may be a very
bubbly, talkative, energetic individual, if my patient isn't like that and if they are very reserved and may not talk lot
although I it is still important for me to gather the information I need to care for this patient, it is important for me to
also check myself and my personality and cater to the patients personality type so that I may not overwhelm them
and to make sure that our patient nurse relationship is professional.

Responding

Discuss elements of quality improvement, service excellence, population health or leadership you noted as part of
the meeting focus.

Throughout the presentation I knew that the main focus was a professional identity of nursing but I wasn't really
understanding what that entailed and I thought it mostly focused on nurses taking more initiative in the
interprofessional team, but I found that the purpose of this presentation was to change the way others looked at
nurses and how we can change the brand image of a nurse as a professional identity. For example, when talking
about the micro, meso and macro level impact, they talked about how to communicate and unified brand image it is
important for nurses to give accurate, relevant, distinctive consistent and research-based information as professional
nurses. The presenter for this information talked about their importance of doing this so that our image as nurses
although we are caring individuals, can revolutionize to more to descriptors. In the same diagram, they talked about
how evolution and brand will transform from the current image to desired nursing brand image, through advocacy of
self and profession to the public and within all domains of nursing. The consistency of the message and action over
time will create an evolution as a nurse’s professional identity.

Reflection-in-Action

What role would you take if you were being assigned to represent your unit in this group? What subcommittee
would you like to participate with and why?

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If I were assigned to represent my unit in this group I personally would like to be the individual that closes the
presentation. I think this is one of the most important because it brings the whole presentation together and allows
people watching the presentation to close out on the topic and the information that was provided. I personally think
that I would like to participate in a advisory committee because it allows individuals to bring their expertise on a
specific topic and then be able to give information on it. This allows individuals to educate others about it a topic
they feel strongly about, and I enjoy that aspect of it.

Reflection-on-Action and Clinical Learning

What written evidence is available to support professional nursing groups and their impact on the development of
evidence-based practice and quality improvement related to patient outcomes? Cite/reference all journal articles that
contributed to the evidence.
I found this article called, “Promotion of evidence-based practice by professional nursing associations: literature
review.” That talked about how nursing associations educate nurses professionally and allow them to communicate
with each other how nurses can provide better care for their patients through contact hours. I believe nursing
associations allow for nurses with the same interests to be able to talk about topics that they all may feel strongly
about or want to learn more of.

Holleman, Gerda et al. “Promotion of evidence-based practice by professional nursing associations: literature
review.” Journal of advanced nursing vol. 53,6 (2006): 702-9. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03776.x

Nielsen, A., Stragnell, S., & Jester P (2007). Guide for reflection using the Clinical Judgment
Model. Journal of Nursing Education, 46(11), p. 513-516.

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