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© 2019 Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, 

Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved. 

 

Really Good Stuff 

Volume 12     Number 14     October 2019 

Professionalism workshops tailored for nurses 

*Corresponding Author 
  
Zahra Shahvari  

Azad University Complex of Gachsaran, 

Ferdousy Blvd., Gachsaran, Iran. 

Postal Code: 75 81 86 38 76  

Tel: (+98) 074 32 33 533 

Email: shahvarizahra@gmail.com 

 

Received: 14 Nov 2018 

Accepted: 29 Aug 2019 

Published: 21 Oct 2019 

 

Citation to this article:  

Samadi Sh, Shahvari Z. Professionalism 

workshops tailored for nurses. J Med 

Ethics Hist Med. 2019; 12: 14. 

Shahram Samadi1, Zahra Shahvari2* 
 

1.Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical 
Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 
2.Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Azad University of Gachsaran, Gachsaran, Iran. 

 

  

What was the problem?  

Many studies have attempted to analyze the concept of 

professionalism in nursing. Prior to this study, however, there 

had been no experience of empowering nurses to train their 

peers. The context of nursing is different from other professions 

in the health system. In comparison to physicians, nurses’ 

exposure to patients is not only more frequent, but also of a kind 

that urges them to behave in a professional manner that differs 

from physicians and medical students. 

Practical improvement of professional behavior in a clinical 

setting requires teamwork and participation of all members of 

the team. Education is the first step in promoting professional 

behavior (1). Despite the great efforts to teach professionalism 

to faculty members and medical students, there has been no 

systematic education for nurses as important members of the 

treatment team. The number of hospitals under the supervision 

of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the number of 

nurses working there are very high, but there are not enough 

nursing faculty members to educate clinical nurses, and it is not 

their responsibility to train clinical nurses after all. Since a 

limited number of educators have the required skills and 

knowledge to teach professional behavior to nurses, it is 

necessary that such training be offered in special 

professionalism workshops tailored for nurses. 

  



Professionalism workshops tailored for nurses 

 

 

 
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Volume 12     Number 14     October 2019 

 

What did we do? 

This project was designed to empower a 

number of nurses to teach professional 

behavior issues to other nurses in university 

hospitals. Although no needs assessment 

study was performed, the difference between 

the pre-test and the post-test obtained from 

the participants indicated the need for 

training. 

In the first stage, the Nursing Bureau of 

Tehran University of Medical Sciences 

introduced 41 nurses who were active in 

other university projects or had the potential 

and motivation to teach professionalism. A 

workshop about professionalism was 

organized in which all 41 nurses 

participated. The purpose of the meeting was 

to familiarize the nurses with the project. 

Subsequently, 12 volunteers formed 6 pairs 

and chose 6 topics of professionalism 

including altruism, responsibility, honor and 

integrity, respect for others, justice and 

excellence based on their personal interest. 

We provided material for study on the 

chosen topics and asked the participants to 

design scenarios relevant to the given topics 

for discussion in the workshop. The 

scenarios were reviewed and commented on 

by experts and executives. The first round 

was planned and implemented in 5 sessions, 

each lasting 4 hours. In each session, there 

were a number of nurses, two nursing 

faculty members, and three medical 

professionalism experts. Three topics were 

presented by the nurses and were reviewed 

and evaluated by the juries. Two nurses were 

responsible for each topic and finally 8 

nurses presented their lectures. Participating 

nurses received feedback on the presented 

content, slides, designed cases and how the 

speeches were delivered, and they improved 

their products based on the feedback. The 

speakers presented the previous modified 

topics in a new session. The second round of 

the project started in five sessions, each 

lasting four hours. Nurses who still had 

problems after this stage were invited to the 

Professionalism Office and their problems 

were resolved by members of the office. In 

the third round, a workshop was held for a 

number of nurse supervisors to ensure that 

the speakers were adequately educated and 

had achieved the necessary capabilities. At 

the beginning and end of the sessions, 

participants completed a questionnaire for 

assessing the effectiveness of the workshop, 

and another for assessing the teaching 

method. The assessment forms showed 

satisfaction of the participants with the 

workshop.  

 

What lessons have been learned? 

Extensive staff training requires an 

experienced training team. In 

interdisciplinary fields such as 

professionalism, it is necessary to ensure 

that the content and the teaching method are 

accurate, and holding trainer workshops is a 

good way to achieve this. After the 

introduction of capable nursing speakers, the 

Nursing Bureau of Tehran University of 

Medical Sciences decided to hold a two-day 

workshop on professionalism in 12 hospitals 

every month. We hope that the workshops 

will gradually increase the level of 

knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward 



Samadi Sh., et al. 

 

 

 

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Volume 12     Number 14     October 2019 

professionalism. In this project, it was 

necessary to increase the number of 

participants in the initial workshop so that a 

sufficient number of nurses could gradually 

become available for teaching. Despite their 

continuous participation in the project, some 

nurses were not competent speakers due to 

professional commitment issues, and we 

found that we should not make initial 

choices for nurses just based on their 

interests. Therefore, it is recommended that 

the initial selection of individuals be based 

on the ability of individuals to teach 

regardless of their individual interests, and 

that recruitments continue throughout the 

project. 

 

Flowchart 1- Empowering nurses to teach professional behavior issues to other nurses 

 

 

 

 

  



Professionalism workshops tailored for nurses 

 

 

 
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Volume 12     Number 14     October 2019 

     References  

1. Cruess RL, Cruess SR, Steinert Y. Teaching Medical Professionalism. UK: Cambridge 
University Press; 2008.