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Ida Jean Pelletier's (Orlando)
address to the last graduating class of the Flower
Fifth Avenue Hospital, from which she had graduated
in 1947, focused on the importance of professional
nurses having a clear idea of the function of nursing.
This function relates to caring for the patient and
in the process finding out and meeting the patient's
immediate need for help. Unfortunately, she notes,
it is often hard to see this reflected in practice
which indicates nurses have an unclear idea of the
function of nursing, or there are obstacles that divert
the nurse from carrying it out. Appropo to today's
healthcare environment she identifies the "rat race"
which forces nurses to relinquish their responsibility
and professional prerogatives, when they are unclear
about this function; thus nurses do what others expect
of them. Her address describes how nurses can approach
organizational problems which prevent them from fulfilling
their responsibility to patients. She states that
physician's orders are for the patient not the nurse,
nurses help patients carry out the doctor's orders
or carries it out for the patient.
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Presented at McLean Hospital
Academic Conference in 1968, Orlando describes her
interpretation of two individual persons' processes
of action when they have a face to face encounter.
Orlando illustrates both a one-way and a two-way form
of communication. She also provides examples of nursing
process records that contain the content of both one
and two-way communication. The teaching of this nursing
process is described. Orlando uses examples of how
nurses learn to use their reactions, namely their
perception, thought, or feeling, in a way that helps
them understand the meaning of patients', or other
peoples' presenting behavior. Orlando describes the
research as well as the methods used to evaluate its
effectiveness. The research outcomes are also presented
and discussed.
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Written in 1976 this provocative
presentation by Orlando at the University of Tulsa
College of Nursing identifies some of the paradoxical
issues in nursing before addressing what she believed
to be the single fundamental issue of professional
nursing. She notes these paradoxical issues will become
more complex unless "nursing collectively articulates
a distinct professional function and demonstrates
in practice and research in no uncertain terms what
the product of that function is." She notes without
a distinct professional function it is impossible
to acquire and maintain professional authority to
carry it out. The highlight of this presentation is
Orlando's compelling description of the qualitative
field research she did at Yale which culminated in
her formulation of the professional function of nursing.
A vivid description of how it was enacted with a patient
provides an excellent example of its usefulness to
nursing practice.
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Speaking at the first annual
induction ceremony at Southeastern Massachusetts University
in 1983, Orlando addressed: (a) what a professional
nurse is, (b) what professional nursing produces,
and (c) what justifies nursing's existence as an independent
profession. Throughout this presentation Orlando criticizes
the 1980 ANA Social Policy Statement for its lack
of relevance as a definition of nursing and its absence
of guiding statements for professional nurses in practice
or for the public served by nurses. Orlando differentiates
lay and professional nursing. Whereas in lay nursing
the activity needed to accomplish the care is known,
in professional nursing neither the nature of the
distress or the activity to relieve it are known either
to the client or the nurse before the nurse's professional
investigation. Orlando juxtaposes the content of the
Social Policy Statement with her conception of professional
nursing. Throughout the address Orlando emphasizes
the need for a clearly defined distinct function of
nursing.
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