Competency Differences Between Associate Degree And Baccalaureate Degree Nursing
Competency Differences between Associate Degree and Baccalaureate Degree Nursing
Educational Preparation Assignment
The changing standards of training and education of registered nurses has made a huge improvement in patient care and recovery times throughout medical history. Looking back at the very early years of heath care, other than washing their hands and tying their hair back nurses received very little formal training if any at all before delivering care to their patients. Taking into consideration the job description of nineteenth and early twentieth century, nurses were not required to have the expertise and skills of today’s nurses. As the ramifications and diversity of patient’s population and duel diagnosis increase, quite rapidly, it became necessary for …show more content…
the modern nurse to be professionally educated and expertly skilled in their field of practice. The nurse 's role is constantly changing and becoming more challenging requiring highly developed critical thinking skills and decision making competencies. While the associate degree nursing programs, offer the graduates the capability to begin a competent entry-level nursing practice. A baccalaureate level educated nurse is equipped with an elevated knowledge in diagnoses comprehension and patient care implementation allowing for a more complete understanding of the health care proses, and the skill and confidence to use these skills.
What are the differences between an Associate Degree in Nursing and a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing?
Nursing encompasses several components in its practice, these are taught at both degree levels. As a trained nurse with a baccalaureate degree working in present day practice not only needs to validate bedside skills, also thinks of the patient as a complete package, including patient 's emotional and spiritual health. The basis of any nursing degree is the physical health of the patient. While both degrees teach this the baccalaureate degree goes farther into the philosophy and diversity of a research and evidence based practice.
Specifically the associate degree in nursing is shorter in length and the emphasis of their studies is normally limited to the nurse’s role in providing physical support through task-oriented practice. The associate degree program begin the students in a clinical setting early and spend the mainstream of their preparation with patients is more of a hands on environment. Despite the fact they do take account of cultural and family-centered care, as well as critical thinking proses and pathophysiology in their curriculums, it 's on a limited
basis.
The baccalaureate degree in nursing naturally takes longer because the students are receiving an in-depth and detailed training for an advanced degree. Besides skill building, a heavy portion of the training is focused on critical thinking, evidence based practice, leadership skills and disease process. This provides the graduates with a more sophisticated thought process.
The aptitude of nurses prepared at the associate degree level versus the baccalaureate degree level has been explored to determine the dissimilarity of the outcomes on patient care among the different levels of educated nurses. Hospitals that have a higher proportion of registered nurses who possess a baccalaureate degree or higher have considerably fewer mortality rates in addition to a reduced amount of postoperative complications and shorter length of stay (Blegen, Goode, Park, Vaughn, Spetz, 2013).
Patient Care Situation Demonstrating Baccalaureate Level Education
At hand are conditions wherever a baccalaureate educated registered nurse could remain capable to make better-quality clinical judgments and depend on their extremely established critical thinking skills.
To demonstrate the possible alterations in know-how between an associate degree level and a baccalaureate level nurse, consider a hypothetical patient care scenario.
A post-operative patient, who has just had open heart surgery, and visiting with family, on post op day 5, anticipating being discharge; after a big surgery there are always a lots of questions, when going home.
Before being discharge from the hospital; the next action is for the associate degree nurse to print out all the discharge papers. Then the nurse begin to start the discharge with the patient and family. The associate degree nurse just reads from the papers printed.
. The baccalaureate level nurse will make use of her critical thinking skills and further assess the patient, while considering the patient’s recent surgery and length of stay; to educate the family and patient bases on evidence base with the surgery. The baccalaureate level nurse may possibly be more self-sufficient in her decision making abilities, because she has studied the patient as a whole, rather than focusing on a singular task or solution.
In a nutshell, a registered nurse who graduate with an associate degree nursing program or a baccalaureate degree nursing program is ready to take the exam to obtain their registered nursing license. The licensing exam tests for minimum technical competency for safe nursing practice; nevertheless, it does not test for differences between programs or degree levels (HRSA 2013). Meanwhile there is no alternative in testing with your degree status, it is challenging to determine the higher proficiency of a new graduate nurse.
Although associate degree nurse graduates possibly will have more dexterous clinical skills and be contented in the hospital as a brand new working nurse, baccalaureate degree nurses will be able to carry out more diverse nursing situations with more wide-ranging advancement opportunities. The foremost preparation of any nurse should be to deliver safe, quality care to their patients, a customary that is universal to any qualification or degree position. The professional nursing community as a whole should continuously strive for skilled, safe, educated nurses who master their art beyond basic competency.
Baccalaureate nursing program particularly goes over all of the materials as in the diploma and associate-degree programs, plus it offers students with a more comprehensive training of the “physical and social sciences, nursing research, nursing leadership and management, community and public health nursing, and the humanities”. (InterBusiness Issues, April 2009) This wide-ranging and more comprehensive education heightens the student’s professional growth and permits the baccalaureate graduate to have healthier understand the abundant “social, cultural, economic and political issues that impact patients and influence healthcare.”.(InterBusiness Issues, April 2009)
References:
Blegen, M.A., Goode, C.J., Park, S.H., Vaughn, T. & Spetz, J. (2013, February). Baccalaureate education in nursing and patient outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43 (2), 89-94.
Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.
(2013, April). The U.S. nursing workforce: Trends in supply and education. Accessible online at http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/nursingworkforce/index.html. Home » InterBusiness Issues » April 2009
. http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2009/apr/importance-baccalaureate-degree-nursing-education
Educational Preparation Assignment
The changing standards of training and education of registered nurses has made a huge improvement in patient care and recovery times throughout medical history. Looking back at the very early years of heath care, other than washing their hands and tying their hair back nurses received very little formal training if any at all before delivering care to their patients. Taking into consideration the job description of nineteenth and early twentieth century, nurses were not required to have the expertise and skills of today’s nurses. As the ramifications and diversity of patient’s population and duel diagnosis increase, quite rapidly, it became necessary for …show more content…
the modern nurse to be professionally educated and expertly skilled in their field of practice. The nurse 's role is constantly changing and becoming more challenging requiring highly developed critical thinking skills and decision making competencies. While the associate degree nursing programs, offer the graduates the capability to begin a competent entry-level nursing practice. A baccalaureate level educated nurse is equipped with an elevated knowledge in diagnoses comprehension and patient care implementation allowing for a more complete understanding of the health care proses, and the skill and confidence to use these skills.
What are the differences between an Associate Degree in Nursing and a Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing?
Nursing encompasses several components in its practice, these are taught at both degree levels. As a trained nurse with a baccalaureate degree working in present day practice not only needs to validate bedside skills, also thinks of the patient as a complete package, including patient 's emotional and spiritual health. The basis of any nursing degree is the physical health of the patient. While both degrees teach this the baccalaureate degree goes farther into the philosophy and diversity of a research and evidence based practice.
Specifically the associate degree in nursing is shorter in length and the emphasis of their studies is normally limited to the nurse’s role in providing physical support through task-oriented practice. The associate degree program begin the students in a clinical setting early and spend the mainstream of their preparation with patients is more of a hands on environment. Despite the fact they do take account of cultural and family-centered care, as well as critical thinking proses and pathophysiology in their curriculums, it 's on a limited
basis.
The baccalaureate degree in nursing naturally takes longer because the students are receiving an in-depth and detailed training for an advanced degree. Besides skill building, a heavy portion of the training is focused on critical thinking, evidence based practice, leadership skills and disease process. This provides the graduates with a more sophisticated thought process.
The aptitude of nurses prepared at the associate degree level versus the baccalaureate degree level has been explored to determine the dissimilarity of the outcomes on patient care among the different levels of educated nurses. Hospitals that have a higher proportion of registered nurses who possess a baccalaureate degree or higher have considerably fewer mortality rates in addition to a reduced amount of postoperative complications and shorter length of stay (Blegen, Goode, Park, Vaughn, Spetz, 2013).
Patient Care Situation Demonstrating Baccalaureate Level Education
At hand are conditions wherever a baccalaureate educated registered nurse could remain capable to make better-quality clinical judgments and depend on their extremely established critical thinking skills.
To demonstrate the possible alterations in know-how between an associate degree level and a baccalaureate level nurse, consider a hypothetical patient care scenario.
A post-operative patient, who has just had open heart surgery, and visiting with family, on post op day 5, anticipating being discharge; after a big surgery there are always a lots of questions, when going home.
Before being discharge from the hospital; the next action is for the associate degree nurse to print out all the discharge papers. Then the nurse begin to start the discharge with the patient and family. The associate degree nurse just reads from the papers printed.
. The baccalaureate level nurse will make use of her critical thinking skills and further assess the patient, while considering the patient’s recent surgery and length of stay; to educate the family and patient bases on evidence base with the surgery. The baccalaureate level nurse may possibly be more self-sufficient in her decision making abilities, because she has studied the patient as a whole, rather than focusing on a singular task or solution.
In a nutshell, a registered nurse who graduate with an associate degree nursing program or a baccalaureate degree nursing program is ready to take the exam to obtain their registered nursing license. The licensing exam tests for minimum technical competency for safe nursing practice; nevertheless, it does not test for differences between programs or degree levels (HRSA 2013). Meanwhile there is no alternative in testing with your degree status, it is challenging to determine the higher proficiency of a new graduate nurse.
Although associate degree nurse graduates possibly will have more dexterous clinical skills and be contented in the hospital as a brand new working nurse, baccalaureate degree nurses will be able to carry out more diverse nursing situations with more wide-ranging advancement opportunities. The foremost preparation of any nurse should be to deliver safe, quality care to their patients, a customary that is universal to any qualification or degree position. The professional nursing community as a whole should continuously strive for skilled, safe, educated nurses who master their art beyond basic competency.
Baccalaureate nursing program particularly goes over all of the materials as in the diploma and associate-degree programs, plus it offers students with a more comprehensive training of the “physical and social sciences, nursing research, nursing leadership and management, community and public health nursing, and the humanities”. (InterBusiness Issues, April 2009) This wide-ranging and more comprehensive education heightens the student’s professional growth and permits the baccalaureate graduate to have healthier understand the abundant “social, cultural, economic and political issues that impact patients and influence healthcare.”.(InterBusiness Issues, April 2009)
References:
Blegen, M.A., Goode, C.J., Park, S.H., Vaughn, T. & Spetz, J. (2013, February). Baccalaureate education in nursing and patient outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43 (2), 89-94.
Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.
(2013, April). The U.S. nursing workforce: Trends in supply and education. Accessible online at http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/reports/nursingworkforce/index.html. Home » InterBusiness Issues » April 2009
. http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2009/apr/importance-baccalaureate-degree-nursing-education