The Nursing Practice Essay

The Nursing Practice Essay

The Nursing Practice Essay

The practice of nursing had evolved from the era of Florence Nightingale to the contemporary evidence-based nursing practice. Nursing has been considered one of the oldest professions. The modern nursing profession originated in the mid-19^th century during the times of Nightingale. The role of women in nursing and the role of nursing in civil wars and the world war changed the perception of this practice. Florence nightingale attempted to challenge the social norms and create gender justice and formal nursing education that birthed modern nursing. Since then, various institution and nursing teaching programs have been established. By the mid-20^th century, more than 170 tertiary nursing teaching institutions had been established in the United States (The College for The People, 2018). This paper describes the evolution of unison and the scope of practice in nursing care today.

Scope of Nursing Practice

In the beginning stages of modern nursing, the practice main concerned caring for the war causalities. However, in the early twentieth century, the scope of nursing started to change and diversify. Nurses started providing essential care services at homes, hospitals, and in the community. The training of nurses had also diversified this scope of practice such that various levels of practice and subfields of nursing have been included. With this evolution and advancement in nursing training and practice, nurses have been trained to provide specific care such as administering anesthesia and delivering babies (The College For The People, 2018). Therefore, ‘sub-professions’ such as nursing anesthesia and nurse-midwifery were created. The learning institutions have since offered training to nurse of different cadres. In the mid-twentieth century, the establishment of a bachelor of science degree in nursing had been appreciated in more than 170 colleges in the United States (University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, n.d.). Community colleges had also started training diploma-prepared nurses to compensate for the nursing shortages and reliance on student nurses.

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Associate and Baccalaureate Education in Nursing

The process of becoming a registered nurse (RN) since the mid-twentieth century has been enabled through three educational pathways. The associate’s degree in nursing (ADN), the bachelor’s of science in nursing (BSN), and the diploma in nursing are the pathways nursing student can pursue to become licensed nurses. The baccalaureate education in nursing equips the learners with competencies in nursing leadership, public health, formal coursework, liberal arts, advanced sciences, and community health as outlined in the Institute of Medicine’s 2011 report, The Future of Nursing (Poorchangizi et al., 2019). Associate education in nursing provides these competencies but in a narrower or limited range of settings than the BSN programs. The scope of practice in BSN and ADN varies slightly because it is argued that BSN nurses have attained higher academic competencies and are poised to achieve higher education and practice competencies.

Nursing Care Approaches and Decisions Between the BSN and ADN Nurse

A diabetic patient in the inpatient hospital ward requires nursing care after seeing their physicians. Both BSN and ADN nurses can provide this standard nursing care until the patient’s recovery is achieved and the patient can walk home. However, the care does not end at the final point of physical contact with the patient. a BSN peppered nurse will do extra work to provide patients with relevant health education that will ensure patient treatment compliance and recent the chances of readmission. The scientific basis of the care is delivered properly by the BSN than the ADN nurse thus safe care.

Evidence-based Practice in Academic Preparation

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the current basis of modern nursing. It entails the acquisition and application of research and scientific knowledge and evidence to guide decision-making and care delivery in nursing. The other form of care delivery relies on intuitions and nurses’ experience. EBP is taught in the bachelor education in nursing. The significance of EBP in nursing is the provision of a basis to make well-founded decisions during care delivery. Healthcare practice is dynamic, especially the nursing practice in this context. The need to keep updated with current safety and best care practices is addressed by adopting evidence-based practice. Learning about the latest protocols and care guidelines in other care setting and applying them to own practice transforms the practice and improve the chances of providing safer care that is of good quality.

More often than not, patients present with complex debilitating diseases that the nurse might not have the necessary skills to respond to appropriately and save a life (Nibbelink & Brewer, 2018). The acquisition of these skills and knowledge are made systematically possible through evidence-based practice. The academic preparation of the RN‐BSN nurse includes learning the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) that form part of the essential competencies. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) that is observed by all training programs for BSN-prepared nurses entail evidence-based practice among other competencies. BSN nurses are expected to have the KSA competencies in evidence-based practice among other elements of the QSEN framework

Nursing Communication and Collaboration Today

The current nursing practice involves care provision to the patients with input from other care professionals. Nursing care is provided in a team rather than individually. Therefore, nurses communicate through written and nonwritten communication. Patient care progress notes, electronic health records, mobile communication, and written vertical communication are some of the methods of interaction for successful teamwork in interdisciplinary care delivery (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). The process of care coordination entails communication and collaboration in the team and the nurses are at the center of ensuring successful care coordination (Schot et al., 2020). Prompt and timely communication is essential to reducing medical and medication errors that jeopardize patient safety. Methods of coordination vary with every healthcare organization and nurses have to adhere to the local protocols.

Conclusion

The nursing practice is dynamic and continues the change. Learning forms the past has enabled improvement in the current practice. The current health care delivery is offered in interdisciplinary teams that would require the services of nurses for successful care coordination. Nursing education is, therefore, an essential recipe for safe and quality care.

References

Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & van Wijngaarden, J. D. H. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past decade. Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0411-3

Nibbelink, C. W., & Brewer, B. B. (2018). Decision-making in nursing practice: An integrative literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5–6), 917–928. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14151

Poorchangizi, B., Borhani, F., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Farokhzadian, J. (2019). The importance of professional values from nursing students’ perspective. BMC Nursing, 18(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0351-1

Schot, E., Tummers, L., & Noordegraaf, M. (2020). Working on working together. A systematic review on how healthcare professionals contribute to interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), 332–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1636007

The College For The People. (2018, November 29). ADN vs BSN patient safety outcomes & care situation. Nightingale College. https://nightingale.edu/blog/adn-vs-bsn-patient-outcomes/

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. (n.d.). American nursing: An introduction to the past. Upenn.Edu. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/american-nursing-an-introduction-to-the-past/

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The field of nursing has changed over time. In a 750‐1,000 word paper, discuss nursing practice today by addressing the following:
Explain how nursing practice has changed over time and how this evolution has changed the scope of practice and the approach to treating the individual.
Compare and contrast the differentiated practice competencies between an associate and baccalaureate education in nursing. Explain how scope of practice changes between an associate and baccalaureate nurse.
Identify a patient care situation and describe how nursing care, or approaches to decision‐making, differ between the BSN‐prepared nurse and the ADN nurse.
Discuss the significance of applying evidence‐based practice to nursing care and explain how the academic preparation of the RN‐BSN nurse supports its application.
Discuss how nurses today communicate and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and how this supports safer and more effective patient outcomes