Professional Identity and Stewardship
Part 1: Interview with a fellow peer in class
Interview date: 16/8/2017
Health discipline: Pharmacy
Summary of the interview
The participant is a pharmacy student in my class. She gave the information that a pharmacist is an important health care team member and a valuable component of patient care. Pharmacists are responsible for ensuring proper use of scientific knowledge in promoting efficient use of medicines as well as protecting the people against the harms of misusing medication. As such, a pharmacist works in institutions like hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, community pharmacies, and research firms. Either, pharmacists use their skills and capabilities of drug management to ensure effective drug therapy by offering advice and availing information to every stakeholder in the healthcare systems. This expertise and qualification are necessary to execute the duties of a pharmacist and to achieve the outcome of the profession.
On professionalism, the interviewee regards working with the scope of a discipline as professional. Thus, professional responsibility influences the behaviors such as ethics, practice conduct, and commitment to work. A professional needs to hold him/herself in a way that is acceptable within his/her discipline to ensure accountability and the desired outcome regarding service provision. However, she insisted stewardship is crucial to maintaining consistency and fulfillment of the pharmacy practice.
The correspondent revealed that leaders in pharmacy are stewards of health care. She gave the examples of pharmaceutical organizations in America such as the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) that advocate for the improvement of medical standards and improvement of the status of pharmacists to enhance the practice of pharmacy and health care reforms. The leaders of these pharmacy organizations are committed to improving the practice of pharmacy in health care by providing information and advice to users of pharmaceutical products through tactics such as lobbying. It is through effective leadership that the initiatives to improve pharmacy practice through the pharmaceutical organizations are possible.
The interviewee concurs that it is important that leaders in pharmacy exercise professional advocacy and authenticity as well as power and influence when working with colleagues. Pharmacy leaders desire authenticity, power, and influence in carrying out their duties and responsibilities. The pharmacy leaders should be able to influence their colleagues to advocate for better practice through shared goals. Thus, the leaders should have the power and influence to persuade their colleagues to work towards meeting the common goals of the profession.
Evaluation
The interviewee who is a peer in the class exhibits the knowledge of professional identity and stewardship. Through the responses, the interviewee mentions aspects such as formal qualifications, roles and responsibilities, aims and conducts within the discipline of pharmacy that identifies the interviewee’s professional identity (Berg, Hicks & Roberts, 2017). Either, the interviewee also manifests the professional potential of stewardship in pharmacy. Particularly, the interviewee indicates that pharmacy stewards work directly with their colleagues through pharmacy organizations to promote and transform the work environment and the status of pharmacists in health care.
Part 2: Interview with a fellow peer in class
Interview date: 17/8/2017
Professional position: Supervisor, CNO
Summary of the interview
The correspondent is a chief nursing officer (CNO) with more than 14 years of experience in nursing leadership. Currently, she is responsible for developing and implementing objectives, policies and procedures within the organization. Additionally, she offers guidance and resources to the staff and colleagues to create a positive work environment that ensures safer care and improved patient outcome.
Ideally, the CNO describes professionalism as the behavior, qualities, and objectives that define any discipline. The CNO reveals that professional responsibility has influenced her work in many ways. She began with establishing that it is a general conviction that nurses have the responsibility to deliver fundamentals of care such as caring for the sick and ensuring proper environments to minimize infections. On top of this role, she has the privilege to formulate and implement policies that influence safe care and patient safety in the healthcare facility. However, she asserted that professional responsibility stipulates that she should be able to account for her actions. Moreover, the CNO declared that professional liability affects her work because it emphasizes the need for a nursing practitioner to be competent and consistent in all ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks that guide nursing practice.
The CNO considers the management of the health care organization as stewards of health care. Firstly, the CNO acknowledged and appreciated the hospital management for creating a positive and collaborative environment for various medical practitioners to interact effectively to deliver high-quality health care and improve patient outcome. Then, the CNO went ahead to mention nursing leaders like Nightingale and Lynn Dykema Sprayberry whose research in nursing practice has today transformed care delivery processes (Sprayberry, 2014). The CNO has often utilized the FLOWERSTM model to improve care delivery process in her practice. The FLOWERSTM model is an acronym for important nursing concepts, which are fundamentals of care, leadership at the bedside, ownership of outcomes, wisdom, ethics, relational competence, and skilled caring (Sprayberry, 2014).
According to the correspondent, stewardship in the scope of nursing is a very dynamic topic in healthcare reform. Nursing stewardship involves collaborations with institutions to develop and improve mechanisms for evaluation and assessment, designing and enhancing the adoption of evidence-based practice to improve care delivery processes, and working with nursing educators and colleagues to create a collaborative and positive work environment to enhance safe care (Berg, Hicks & Roberts, 2017). Thus, the CNO is a steward in healthcare because she engages with nursing educators and peers to lobby the government and policymakers to ensure efficient work environment for nurses to execute effectively their roles in healthcare reforms.
Finally, the CNO concurs that it is important that leaders exercise professional advocacy and authenticity as well as power and influence when working with colleagues. Professional advocacy is important in initiatives such as government lobbying to improve health care reforms (Hood, 2014). Leadership is the ability to influence a group or individuals to work towards attaining organizational goals. Thus, authenticity, power, and influence are critical competencies that leaders should possess to establish good associations to advocate for health care reforms (Kiersch & Byrne, 2015).
Conclusion
Comparing interview between the peer and the CNO
In overall terms, the interview between the two correspondents has highlighted professional identity and the role of professionals as stewards. Professionalism is the conduct, behavior, qualities, and objectives that define any professional practice (Berg, Hicks & Roberts, 2017). It is through professional conduct and responsibility that professionals exhibit the leadership characteristics to be stewards of the various professions. In the above interview, the peer reveals how pharmacy leaders through their professional competence improve pharmaceutical practice. On the other hand, the CNO discusses her role that has inevitably made her a steward in the nursing practice. However, stewardship is not just about leading but also engaging in initiatives such as collaborations and implementation of strategies the promote active and healthy working environments (Berg, Hicks & Roberts, 2017). Finally, leaders should portray authentic leadership style that focuses on building authenticity and good associations that can enhance professional advocacy (Kiersch & Byrne, 2015).
References
Berg, J., Hicks, R., & Roberts, M. (2017). Professional growth and development: A lifetime endeavor. Journal Of The American Association Of Nurse Practitioners, 29(8), 429-433. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2327-6924.12491
Hood, L. J. (2014). Leddy & Pepper’s conceptual bases of professional nursing (8th ed.).Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Kiersch, C. & Byrne, Z. (2015). Is Being Authentic Being Fair? Multilevel Examination ofAuthentic Leadership, Justice, and Employee Outcomes. Journal Of Leadership &Organizational Studies, 22(3), 292-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548051815570035
Sprayberry, L. D. (2014). A Response to the Transformation Of America’s Health Care: Direct-Care Nurses Bring FLOWERS (TM) To the Bedside. MedSurg Nursing, 23(2), 123
