Student Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX6080 MSN Practicum: Professionalism in Person-Centered Care and the Workplace Environment

Professor Name

Submission Date

Reflection on Nursing Core Values and Ethical Standards

The essence of being a nurse includes your professional identity. This is seen in how nurses engage with patients, their team, and the ethical challenges that arise in their work. Professional identity based on nursing’s core values helps to shape clinical decisions. This has a constructive effect on patient outcomes. This paper will address my experiences as a nurse to give a foundation for this presentation. From here, I will focus on the core values of nursing, professional organizations, ethical behavior, mentoring, and peer review. As advanced practice nurses (APNs), we must reflect on our actions so that our practice aligns with these values (Kobeissi et al., 2025). This paper will analyze these values. Each section will look at nursing professionalism and identity, and the many different aspects of the scope of nursing practice.

Nursing Core Values in Personal and Professional Practice

Nurses play a crucial role in delivering dedicated and professional service to ensure patients receive the best care possible. Professional nursing combines education, hands-on experience, self-education, personal values, and patience while engaging in the profession. I consider myself an integrity-driven, patient-centric nurse who upholds all the values and principles of the nursing profession. I build my professional identity as a nurse through my ongoing education, self-reflection, and the daily experiences I get through my practice. The profession of nursing also creates a professional identity that has a commitment to personal professional development and a commitment to service to the community. The nursing professional identity is formed through personal values and morals. Yi et al. (2024) also affirm that personal values and morals form the basis of one’s moral sensitivity. I practice nursing with a strong professional identity, which translates to better service to my patients and the community as a whole.

Demonstration of Core Values

When I care for patients, I demonstrate integrity by being honest. I inform patients about their diagnosis and what we think the illness means for their future. I do this with altruism. I don’t let myself be comfortable and put myself first by deciding it’s too inconvenient to care for a patient when it’s not an easy thing for me to do. I demonstrate humility by being aware of my ignorance of something and asking for help. I demonstrate, and my fellow nurses demonstrate, all the characteristics of the safety and patient-centered focus of the nursing care I render. This includes determination and standing up for patients. This focus creates a positive experience for the patients I take care of. I focus on my patients’ physical and emotional needs. I am an active listener to my patients to help with their needs. I demonstrate bravery and stand up for patients who can’t advocate for themselves. I am dedicated to social justice and am trying to help my patients have a fair level of health. I empower patients and advocate for myself and safe nursing practices.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are the vital components of nursing in an ethical and effective manner. DEI is exemplified in my workplace through the provision of and dedication to culturally safe, welcoming, and respectful care to all, regardless of their individual, cultural, or spiritual (belief) and/or (race, gender, social standing, or heritage) background. DEI is epitomized in my advocacy efforts for my colleagues from diverse and underrepresented groups and in my advocacy for policy and program restructuring toward an inclusive workplace along the care continuum. DEI is inclusive and reflects advocacy efforts toward the removal of inequitable systemic structures and barriers to health service access. I remain an active participant in various DEI training and apply principles of cultural safety and/or competence when I engage in assessments and formulate care plans for my patients. Culturally congruent care has been associated with improved satisfaction and overall health of patients and populations, irrespective of their diversity and social standing (Bilotta et al., 2025). Practicing DEI will help develop my professional identity and ensure that all persons receive equity.

Professional Organizations and Values Alignment

The ANA and AANP play important roles when it comes to my nursing values. The ANA’s mission is to advance nursing by advocating, educating, and establishing standards of ethics in practice. Likewise, the AANP focuses on supporting quality nursing and the Evidence-Based Practice paradigm and providing patient-centered services and support to the nursing profession. The values of integrity, advocacy, and social justice that I have, and that both of these organizations support, strengthen my dedication to the ANA Code of Ethics. The ANA Code of Ethics identifies the foundation of ethics in nursing that includes, but is not limited to, expressing compassion for the patient, accountability for what is done as a nurse, and advocating for the patient. The AANP promotes the autonomy of nurse practitioners, which aligns with my personal values and my variable judgment in the best interest of the patient. Both organizations help me to actively connect with nursing professionals who have the same values and to work in collaboration to achieve the same goals that nursing permits. Both organizations help nursing to be seen as an ethical and socially righteous profession.

Impact on Personal Practice Improvement

Being a member of professional nursing organizations has allowed me to access resources (e.g., continuing education) and benefits (e.g., policy updates) to enhance my practice of nursing on a daily basis. For instance, I have utilized the resources that the American Nurses Association (ANA) offers to help me make decisions in the clinic using evidence-based practice and the ethics and standards of the profession. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) has enabled me to have many networking and clinic-related opportunities to enable me to be an active advocate and practice advanced nursing (Carter et al., 2025). Being an active member of these organizations helps me focus my practice of nursing on my clients and helps me keep my practice current and ethical. Being an active member of these organizations has offered me ways to improve my leadership and advocacy skills to alter the health care system as I have wanted it to be changed. Also, from attending the conferences by the ANA and the webinars by the AANP, I have been able to learn about new research and other ways to manage complex clinical and ethical situations. Zhang et al. (2022) found that being a member of a professional nursing organization leads to a greater level of practice and a greater professional identity as compared to the level of practice of nurses who are not members of professional nursing organizations. Thus, by being a member of my respective professional organizations, I am able to enrich the profession of nursing tremendously.

Ethical Behaviors in Nursing Practice and Leadership

Nursing has always been associated with ethics, and ethics are essential for building and maintaining trust and safety for patients. I exhibit ethics in my work by following HIPAA laws, so I do not disclose anything about my patients. I also make sure to get the informed consent of my patients before any treatment. Lastly, I believe in honesty and transparency in all the care I provide. When it comes to intricate ethical challenges in the workplace, I believe that the ANA Code of Ethics comes in very handy. I believe my personal ethics help my coworkers and promote an accountable care team. To lead in nursing, one of the biggest challenges is to act under pressure in a rapidly changing environment with situational ambiguity (Huang et al., 2025). I consider myself to be an ethical leader as I ensure workplace conflicts are resolved fairly and honestly with everyone in mind, and, thinking of patient safety, there is a hierarchy of morals. I believe in the importance of truthful dialogue and communication among co-workers and actively reach out to the Ethics Committee, as well as senior administrators, for assistance concerning moral distress. Creating an environment that encourages moral courage and integrity among staff members is a priority for an ethical leader.

Solutions for Addressing Unethical Behaviors

Nursing fundamentally includes an ethical component. Safety and trust as core elements of patient care hinge on the ethical component of nursing. In my practice, I protect my patients’ privacy in accordance with HIPAA, I do not treat patients without first obtaining their informed consent, and I strive to be as honest and clear in my practice as possible. In the workplace, I utilize the ANA Code of Ethics (ANA, 2021) to address and respond to the numerous ethical dilemmas I encounter. The ethical values I reflect in my practice allow me to be a role model for my coworkers and positively influence the culture of the care team, to which I have accountability. Ethical nursing practice and leadership, during working hours in an environment that is constrained by numerous ethical dilemmas, is dependent upon the ethical behaviors of a leader (Huang et al, 2025). I do this by honestly and fairly addressing workplace dilemmas in an equal manner and putting the safety of my patients first. I encourage staff to communicate the moral distress they experience with their practice. I try to ensure this communication is constructive, and I assist in seeking out the Ethics Committee and/or higher administrators. An ethical leader and practitioner creates a practice environment that empowers staff to act with integrity and moral courage.

Mentorship and Professional Development

Mentoring new nurses also provides opportunities for seasoned nurses to grow. I engaged in informal mentorship when a new RN commenced in our medical-surgical unit. I assisted with prioritization of clinical judgment, therapeutic communication, appropriate documentation, and interactive collaboration with the multidisciplinary team. Mentoring has benefits beyond the individual mentoring relationship and is evident with improvements in the overall team satisfaction, culture, and retention. With my mentee, I was able to facilitate numerous debriefing sessions, and they expressed greater confidence with the application of nursing clinical skills and the exercise of nursing clinical judgment. According to Vlerick et al. (2023), new nurses who receive positive mentoring demonstrate a higher retention rate and improved overall client care in the various places in which they are employed. Reflexively, mentoring improved my ability to articulate my nursing practice to others and increased my confidence in my nursing practice.

Impact on Care Team

From a personal perspective, this mentoring relationship improved my confidence and my nursing practice. Leading my mentee through the basic principles of nursing practice compelled me to revisit and refresh my knowledge and my nursing practice. The mentor/mentee relationship we had built trust and helped us develop respect for each other, characterized by teamwork that enhanced the work environment for the entire team (Rajhi & Aljuhmani, 2026). I have a great interest in the personal development of my nursing career through formal education and mentoring. I believe that mentorship enhances teams and improves communication, reduces clinical errors, and fosters an environment of constructive tension that drives change. The mentoring relationship we had brought a high level of constructive trust and sincere mentoring to our unit, thus enhancing collaboration and subsequently patient care, as we were assured that all nurses are competent and responsible.

Peer Review Strategies and Evaluation

I have found two peer review models to be very useful: direct clinical observation with prompted reflective practice and structured 360-degree feedback. The structured 360-degree feedback model collects evaluation data from supervisors, peers, and subordinates, providing a comprehensive perspective on an individual’s performance. This model encourages ownership of practice and contributes to the individual’s self-awareness. Though feedback can be inconsistent and biased with the structured 360-degree feedback model, it is a highly recognized peer assessment model in nursing. Observation paired with reflection allows nurses to critically analyze their clinical reasoning and professional behavior (Griffith et al., 2023). While previously completed surveys and assessments of nursing practice may have limited an observer’s ability to assess a nurse’s clinical practice and customer service behaviors, this model allows assessors to practically evaluate a nurse’s behaviors in a real clinical setting. There is a risk that an assessor’s ratings may differ from assessments typically made of the nurse’s practice due to the nurse’s observed clinical practice creating an uncharacteristically high level of anxiety.

Personal Experience with Peer Evaluation

I have participated in a structured peer assessment program as a part of the annual appraisal cycle at my workplace. During this process, I assessed a colleague’s clinical skills and provided feedback using a predefined evaluation form with the criteria of communication, safety, and teamwork.

I found the overall peer evaluation process to be respectful and productive. It is considered the evaluator’s growth process as a driver for the design of the evaluation and not as a punitive process. I have learned from this process that in order to assess a peer, you need to do it with complete honesty, with empathy, understanding of the cultural differences that shape the understanding in your viewpoint, and with the support of a developmental purpose for the peer.

Conclusion

This process of reflection has been an opportunity to understand my professional identity as a nurse from a variety of important perspectives. Analyzing my practice regarding the fundamentals of the profession of nursing has revealed to me my strengths as well as the dimensions of my practice that I would like to develop in the future. Professional organizations like the ANA and the AANP support my values and offer me the opportunity to grow as an advanced practice nurse. Aspects of my professional identity and practice as a nurse include the adoption of an ethical framework, the practice of mentoring, and the practice of peer review.