Reference no: EM133846237

Problem

Nursing started out as females, either family members or friends, taking care of the ill or incapacitated. There were no formal training and learning was based on word of mouth or trail and error from those who were taking care of those who were sick or unable to care for themselves. Is nursing a profession? Or is it a technical vocation? Or can it be a combination of the two? Most American nurses would say that nursing is a profession. What then is a profession? In 1915, Dr. Abraham Flexner presented a paper before the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in which he set down the criteria which have since been recognized as one means by which an occupation can be evaluated as to whether it has reached professional status. Get the instant assignment help. According to his standards, the professions involve essentially intellectual operations accompanied by large individual responsibility, are learned in nature, and their members are constantly resorting to the laboratory and seminar for a fresh supply of facts, are not merely academic and theoretical, however, but are definitely practical in their aims, possess a technique capable of communication through a highly specialized educational discipline, are self-organized, with activities, duties and responsibilities which completely engage their participants and develop group consciousness, and, are likely to be more responsive to public interest than are unorganized and isolated individuals, and they tend to become increasingly concerned.