ic trust. This quid pro quo between a profession and the wider society leads to the assertion that professions have a contract with society.
The question as to the identification of the roles, responsibilities, and duties to society of nursing within the context of this discussion of a contract between professions and the wider society implies that nursing is a profession. As Huber (1996, p. 31) states, however, no consensus exists on this issue. In fact, according to Huber (1996, pp. 31-34), even among the community of nurses disagreement exists as to both whether nursing is a profession or even whether nursing should be a profession.
Leaving the issue of the professional status of nursing aside, however, the roles, responsibilities, and duties of nursing to society are identifiable. These roles, responsibilities, and duties of nursing to society include: providing care for the sick (service); developing, expanding, and applying a body of specialized knowledge related to caring for the sick (knowledge); and always acting in the best interests of patients and society (ethics).
Flarey (1995, p. 42) states that benchmarking requires the establishment of an agreed upon quality measurement, followed by a widespread search for the best performance to be measured against. Benchmarking, thus, is the establishment of standards. Considering the definition above provided by Flarey, the process of benchmarking requires first a consensus agreement among stakeholders as to what phenomenon requires a standard. Assume the issue is the outcome of care provided to a specific class of patient, whether that patient group be defined by knee injuries or congestive heart failure. A specific desired outcome for the patient class must be defined.
The second phase of the benchmarking process then is initiated, which according to the Flarey definition above is a search for the procedure that perform best in attaining the desired patient o...