Socializing with colleagues in nursing

Socialization
To begin the process of socialization, having a clear understanding of the definition of nursing is essential. We know what nurses do, but how do we define nursing? Why is defining nursing important? To answer this last question, defining nursing is important for several reasons:

To differentiate nursing from other professions.
To define our practice
To provide guidelines for nursing education
To make nursing visible to the public and policy makers
While there may be multiple definitions of nursing from professional organization and state boards of nursing, similar characteristics can be found in all of them.

The American Nurses Association offers the following definition:

Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.

Knowing what nursing is, supports your move into the nursing role. Socialization is the process of internalizing knowledge, skills, attitudes and other concepts needed to function in a role. You have been socialized into your current role. However, after graduating with your BSN, there will be another socialization process as you take on the broader role of the nurse with a BSN. Another way of describing the socialization process is Patricia Benner’s (1984) novice to expert stages. Some of you may be familiar with Benner’s work through your facilities clinical ladder. Socialization of the professional nurse involves developing your knowledge and skills and interacting with other nurses who act as mentors. Throughout the education process, students encounter a variety of socializing agents, including faculty, classmates, colleagues and other healthcare professionals, patients, and family, who subsequently contribute to the formation of a professional self-identify (Lai & Lim, 2012, p. 32).