Research Group Care and Wellbeing, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences/Medical Centre Leeuwarden, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Department Educational Sciences, Faculty Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Nurs Philos. 2021 Apr;22(2):e12343. doi: 10.1111/nup.12343. Epub 2021 Jan 15.
In 2020, due to the Nightingale year and COVID-19 crisis, nursing is in the public eye more than ever. Nurses often are being seen as compassionate helpers. The public image of nursing, however, also consists of stereotypes such as nursing being a 'doing' profession and care being a 'female' characteristic. Next to that, nursing is associated with images from the past, such as 'the lady with the lamp'. Therefore, in the public eye at least, the nursing identity seems a simple and straightforward enough construct, but nothing less is true. Looking at what a professional identity consists of, historic and social developments influence a group identity as a construct. In addition, individual, professional and contemporary societal moralities, including stereotypes, play its role. Nurses themselves reinforce stereotypes in order to fit into what is expected, even when they believe professional behaviour encompasses other features. They may do so individually as well as in a group context. But nursing actually seems to be better off when viewed upon as a diverse, autonomous profession. Moral values such as compassion motivate nurses to enter the profession. Research shows that if such values are addressed in daily practice, nursing could perhaps be saved from nurses leaving the profession because of feeling unfulfilled. Another aspect concerns the huge nursing body of knowledge. If seen as the ground on which nursing behaviour is standing, it would contribute to a different image of nursing than simplified stereotypes, which do not acknowledge the complex nature of the profession. This paper challenges the idea that the nursing identity is unchangeable and the notion that 'a nurse will always be a nurse'. By doing so, the paper contributes to a debate on the supposed 'true' nature of the nursing identity and opens a discussion on the need for it to change.
2020 年，由于“南丁格尔年”和 COVID-19 危机，护理比以往任何时候都更受到公众关注。护士通常被视为富有同情心的帮助者。然而，护理的公众形象也包括一些刻板印象，例如护理是一种“做”的职业，护理是一种“女性”特征。除此之外，护理还与过去的形象相关联，例如“提灯女士”。因此，至少在公众眼中，护理身份似乎是一个简单明了的构建，但事实并非如此。从专业身份包括哪些方面来看，历史和社会发展影响着一个群体身份的构建。此外，个人、专业和当代社会的道德观念，包括刻板印象，也发挥了作用。护士自己为了融入期望，会强化刻板印象，即使他们认为专业行为还包括其他特征。他们可能会在个人和群体环境中这样做。但当我们将护理视为一个多样化、自主的职业时，它似乎会更好。同情心等道德价值观激励着护士们进入这个行业。研究表明，如果这些价值观在日常实践中得到重视，护理或许可以避免护士因为感到不满足而离开这个职业。另一个方面涉及庞大的护理知识体系。如果将其视为护理行为的基础，它将有助于形成一种不同于简化刻板印象的护理形象，而简化刻板印象并不承认该职业的复杂性。本文质疑了护理身份是不可改变的观点，以及“护士永远是护士”的观念。通过这样做，本文为关于护理身份的所谓“真实”本质的辩论做出了贡献，并开启了对其改变必要性的讨论。
