Theory Practice Research Paper

Theory Practice

Professional socialization in Nursing

The professional socialization in nursing is the process that helps a person to adopt to the systems and norms of a profession. The process helps the individual learn those things that support the job but are not the written part of the job (Lai & Lim, 2012). In nursing too, not everything is learnt about patient care through books. There are environmental and cultural factors that are understood by socializing with other professionals in the system. For example, the response to the patients in emergency is learnt when the nurse actually interacts in the system and observes other nurses and physicians treating patients. Likewise, the punctuality and robustness is learnt by mingling with the peers.

In the health care clinic under consideration, the socialization occurs formally and informally. The peers and professionals socialize in wards, cafeteria and offices. They discuss their medical and health care opinions and also share how they respond to various different situations in the clinic. I believe that this is very helpful in assuming the role of a nurse especially in the start of the career when the new nurse does not know a lot about the procedures and systems at work place. The feminine issues and informal nursing goals are learnt through professional socialization in nursing (Butts and Rich, 2011).

The nursing industry, like many others, has gender biasness issues and thus the socialization may lead to communication of predominantly male or gender biased culture. This indicates that the professional socialization should be considered as a supporting process that helps and enhances the understanding. It should not be taken as the legal system of any healthcare system. The new entrants should socialize to learn professional values and to adapt to the culture without compromising core professional goals. It can be done by comparing company norms to standard ethical norms and values.

Question 2: Applicability of Change Theory

The nursing profession is dominated by male gender. The change theory can be helpful in the industry to bring positive changes. The change theory can adopt external or external styles. The Lippitt's Theory of change, for example, says that it is helpful to bring positive changes at work place by involving a consultant or external agent. The consultant or the external agent is introduced in the system to understand it and develop and unbiased opinion. The external agent can easily identify problems as well as the gaps that can be filled. He can offer better solutions for changing the system in cooperation with the management of the clinic.

The gender biasness for example, can be investigated. The sources of gender biasness can be that there are most of male nurses in the system or most of senior nurses are males. Thus the external agent can suggest hiring more female nurses so that there are comparable proportions of both the genders. Also the promotions should not be based on the genders. This will develop a…