| Sumario: | Professionalism in the context of advanced nursing practice is a complex topic, and must include a consideration of both individual and collective nurses', societal and patient rights and obligations. While attempting to propose a definition to capture the many aspects of this issue, this article also examines conflict of interest between prescribers and the pharmaceutical industry, and the controversial subject of conscientious objection and opting out of the clinical encounter. These may be overlooked by advanced practitioners or dealt with on a systemic level by the nursing collective, but they also have a real and lasting impact at the level of the individual clinician. Conversely, while much of the attention in nurse professionalism is paid to the individual practitioner, there is also an important role to be played in policy development and national and international advocacy efforts by organizations such as the Association of Advanced Practice Educators (AAPE) and the International Council for Nurses (ICN).
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