Moving From Proficiency To Excellence: A Case Study
Nursing: Moving from Proficiency to Excellence
Grand Canyon University
Professional dynamics
NRS-430V
September 14, 2014
Nursing: Moving from Proficiency to Excellence
Nurses are here to provide a safe and healthy environment so that a person(s) may begin, and hopefully continue to live in good health. How we as nurses, with diverging levels of education, approach that may be different. With advancements in technology making patient care more complex, the rise of chronic illnesses, and the level in which nurses are expected to perform has increased dramatically. This has made a strong argument for raising the minimum education level for all nurses from associate degree to at least a baccalaureate degree. By creating …show more content…
a higher baseline level of education, we can ensure nurses have the skill set and knowledge base to be an asset to their healthcare organization and most importantly, their patients. To move beyond proficient, to excellent.
In order to become a registered nurse, no matter the nursing program that is graduated from, one must pass the licensing exam otherwise known as the NCLEX.
This ensures at least a basic understanding and proficiency in nursing practice but does not encompass all that is required of today’s nurse. Any registered nurse should be able to adequately perform standard nursing duties. They chart patient symptoms and vital signs in a medical record, report any changes in their patient’s condition, operate medical equipment, perform patient education, create a care plan, and work as part of a team. It’s when we need to go a step beyond the basic that the difference between the two degrees is more apparent. “Quality patient care hinges on having a well-educated nursing workforce. Research has shown that lower mortality rates, …show more content…
fewer
medication errors, and positive outcomes are all linked to nurses prepared at the baccalaureate and graduate degree levels.”(Factsheet, n d, para. 1)
The level of care patients require has significantly increased. New technology has given us better monitoring capabilities but are more complex. We are seeing advanced exacerbations of chronic illness. More and more patients are presenting with multiple uncontrolled conditions. In many cases, they do not have primary care in place, nor the money for prescriptions necessary to keep these conditions under control. Patients have more complicated social situations that affect their ability to heal or care for themselves. Nurses need a more diverse set of tools to work with.
The focus of care has changed from just addressing the reason the patient is acutely ill, to looking at the person as a whole. We are included in more comprehensive education and discharge planning, making sure there is adequate outside support to help the patient prevent reoccurrence. There is a more extensive liberal arts requirement for BSN than ADN programs, thus giving the BSN nurse a better knowledge of culture, economics, and religion in which to work from.
Evidence based practice has been an integral part of changing current nursing practices.
It has increased patient safety and achieved better outcomes. Nurses have been a big part of the research behind evidence based practice. Baccalaureate programs place more focus on recognizing and performing quality research than Associate programs do. “Nurses must be valued and committed partners in making
policy, directing and evaluating clinical care, and leading organizational operations.”(Alspach, 2005, p. 12)
For instance in the clinical setting, an ADN receives report from a coworker at shift change. On her initial rounds she finds one of her patients without compression devices on their legs. The patient is recently out of surgery and there is an order for the device to have been placed immediately upon return to the unit. The hospital had recently made this a standard order as it is widely accepted that their use reduces risk of blood clots, especially after surgery. This has been an ongoing problem on her unit. Nurses either forget to put them on, the patients won’t keep them on, or there are not enough of the devices for all the patients. She will fix the immediate problem and put them on her patient and maybe take it so far as to tell her charge nurse that this has been happening frequently. A BSN nurse might go a little
farther.
They might offer suggestions to solve the underlying problems. Maybe a short review of policy to staff, or educating patients of the importance of keeping the compression devices on, or speaking with unit manager and possibly getting more devices for the unit. This is how BSN nurses are trained to think, the bigger picture.
Many avenues have opened up for nurses in recent years. Advanced degrees such as Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Practice Nurse, and Nurse Anesthesis are becoming more prevalent and utilized in healthcare systems. All of these have a pre-requisite minimum of a BSN degree. Baccalaureate degree programs seem to focus more on nursing as a career associated with lifelong learning whereas ADN programs are more focused on getting you into the workforce at a functional level. At one time, with such a need for nurses, this was an adequate alternative to a four year degree program. Where nursing stands today and is headed in the future, this is no longer enough. We need to be unsatisfied with proficiency and strive for excellence.
References
Alspach, JA (2005, 06/2005). When your work conditions are sicker than your patients. Critical Care Nursing, 25(3), 11-12. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., Day, L., & Schulman, L. (2009). Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation (1 ed.). Jossey-Bass San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Factsheet: Creating a more highly qualified workforce. (n.d). Retrieved from American Association of Colleges of Nursing website: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/NursingWorkforce.pdf
Grand Canyon University College of Nursing Philosophy. (n d). Retrieved from https://lc-ugrad1.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/content/content.html?operation=viewContent&contentId=68ec9ae6-1809-49f7-886b-a80e82621fcf
Grand Canyon University
Professional dynamics
NRS-430V
September 14, 2014
Nursing: Moving from Proficiency to Excellence
Nurses are here to provide a safe and healthy environment so that a person(s) may begin, and hopefully continue to live in good health. How we as nurses, with diverging levels of education, approach that may be different. With advancements in technology making patient care more complex, the rise of chronic illnesses, and the level in which nurses are expected to perform has increased dramatically. This has made a strong argument for raising the minimum education level for all nurses from associate degree to at least a baccalaureate degree. By creating …show more content…
a higher baseline level of education, we can ensure nurses have the skill set and knowledge base to be an asset to their healthcare organization and most importantly, their patients. To move beyond proficient, to excellent.
In order to become a registered nurse, no matter the nursing program that is graduated from, one must pass the licensing exam otherwise known as the NCLEX.
This ensures at least a basic understanding and proficiency in nursing practice but does not encompass all that is required of today’s nurse. Any registered nurse should be able to adequately perform standard nursing duties. They chart patient symptoms and vital signs in a medical record, report any changes in their patient’s condition, operate medical equipment, perform patient education, create a care plan, and work as part of a team. It’s when we need to go a step beyond the basic that the difference between the two degrees is more apparent. “Quality patient care hinges on having a well-educated nursing workforce. Research has shown that lower mortality rates, …show more content…
fewer
medication errors, and positive outcomes are all linked to nurses prepared at the baccalaureate and graduate degree levels.”(Factsheet, n d, para. 1)
The level of care patients require has significantly increased. New technology has given us better monitoring capabilities but are more complex. We are seeing advanced exacerbations of chronic illness. More and more patients are presenting with multiple uncontrolled conditions. In many cases, they do not have primary care in place, nor the money for prescriptions necessary to keep these conditions under control. Patients have more complicated social situations that affect their ability to heal or care for themselves. Nurses need a more diverse set of tools to work with.
The focus of care has changed from just addressing the reason the patient is acutely ill, to looking at the person as a whole. We are included in more comprehensive education and discharge planning, making sure there is adequate outside support to help the patient prevent reoccurrence. There is a more extensive liberal arts requirement for BSN than ADN programs, thus giving the BSN nurse a better knowledge of culture, economics, and religion in which to work from.
Evidence based practice has been an integral part of changing current nursing practices.
It has increased patient safety and achieved better outcomes. Nurses have been a big part of the research behind evidence based practice. Baccalaureate programs place more focus on recognizing and performing quality research than Associate programs do. “Nurses must be valued and committed partners in making
policy, directing and evaluating clinical care, and leading organizational operations.”(Alspach, 2005, p. 12)
For instance in the clinical setting, an ADN receives report from a coworker at shift change. On her initial rounds she finds one of her patients without compression devices on their legs. The patient is recently out of surgery and there is an order for the device to have been placed immediately upon return to the unit. The hospital had recently made this a standard order as it is widely accepted that their use reduces risk of blood clots, especially after surgery. This has been an ongoing problem on her unit. Nurses either forget to put them on, the patients won’t keep them on, or there are not enough of the devices for all the patients. She will fix the immediate problem and put them on her patient and maybe take it so far as to tell her charge nurse that this has been happening frequently. A BSN nurse might go a little
farther.
They might offer suggestions to solve the underlying problems. Maybe a short review of policy to staff, or educating patients of the importance of keeping the compression devices on, or speaking with unit manager and possibly getting more devices for the unit. This is how BSN nurses are trained to think, the bigger picture.
Many avenues have opened up for nurses in recent years. Advanced degrees such as Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Practice Nurse, and Nurse Anesthesis are becoming more prevalent and utilized in healthcare systems. All of these have a pre-requisite minimum of a BSN degree. Baccalaureate degree programs seem to focus more on nursing as a career associated with lifelong learning whereas ADN programs are more focused on getting you into the workforce at a functional level. At one time, with such a need for nurses, this was an adequate alternative to a four year degree program. Where nursing stands today and is headed in the future, this is no longer enough. We need to be unsatisfied with proficiency and strive for excellence.
References
Alspach, JA (2005, 06/2005). When your work conditions are sicker than your patients. Critical Care Nursing, 25(3), 11-12. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., Day, L., & Schulman, L. (2009). Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation (1 ed.). Jossey-Bass San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Factsheet: Creating a more highly qualified workforce. (n.d). Retrieved from American Association of Colleges of Nursing website: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/NursingWorkforce.pdf
Grand Canyon University College of Nursing Philosophy. (n d). Retrieved from https://lc-ugrad1.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/content/content.html?operation=viewContent&contentId=68ec9ae6-1809-49f7-886b-a80e82621fcf