Nursing Assignment: Discussion on Contemporary Nursing Practices
Question
Task
Write a detailed nursing assignment critically discussing about the contemporary nursing practices.
Answer
Introduction
It is stated in this nursing assignment that the practice of nursing has transformed drastically with more training program, more responsibility, better hospitals, a sense of family and focus of nursing on patient care has saved lives and led to the generation of dedicated healthcare professionals. Nursing being one of the oldest professions has undergone tremendous evolution over time. The current scope of the discussion focuses on the practice of nursing that has undergone changes with a comparison of competencies of ADN and BSN, also using patient care situation for the distinction, and applying evidence-based practice and RN-BSN education in nursing care.
Evolution of Nursing Practice
Nurses were considered to be the natural caregivers as human society evolved as women were caretakers of children, family and the community. Nursing being one of the oldest professions, where only some nurses were paid in exchange for their services rendered from the very beginning. At the beginning of the nursing profession, they possessed very little formal training in healthcare and was concerned with the female gender only and their readiness to perform the job. Nursing was healthcare skills learned from mothers or any other women in similar profession (Butts, 2013). The occupation was not considered to be respectable and women were not considered to be of respectable gender. As women were natural caretakers hence nursing was viewed as an extension of women’s roles at their home. However, currently, the profession of nursing has undergone a tremendous change with extensive training, diversification of staffs, prestige level connected with the profession that was earlier not present. Training earlier was rudimentary and training was not considered necessary and organized efforts were not even offered to caretakers. Florence Nightingale, one of the first amongst nurses, who offered professional training for nurses in Britain during the late 1800s. There she taught some principles to women who wanted to become caregivers. Then in the United States, instruction manuals and lecturers were provided to women such that they can learn to provide care to women also children during childbirth as well as the post-delivery period. With the Civil War, multiple women were seen to add to the increasing requirement of hospitals that offered nursing training as apprenticeship as against training programs.
Currently, the approach of nursing has changed and currently nursing qualifications are very specific also includes in-depth. There are currently a different nursing programs, types of degrees, specialities, along with certifications for varied nursing sorts, with all of them, requires the student to pass different qualifications such that health care can be provided to patients (Cherry, & Jacob, 2016). Towards the 20th centuryfirst half, nurses were provided with elementaryskills in health care, hospital etiquettes, for handling patients, dressing them as well as treating them with all possible efforts. Training in nursing currently is focused on theoretical aspects and not on dressing of nurses or focused on patient addressal, which were prevalent earlier.
Comparison of Differentiated Practice Competencies of ADN and BSN
There are varied competencies required by nurses such that they are able to conduct their professional roles in an efficient manner. Competencies include skills, knowledge and behaviour for improving performance. The American Nurse Association (ADN) states that competency is the expected levels of performance integrating knowledge, skills, abilities as well as judgements. Examining ADN and BSN according to these aspect reveals that they are similar but different at varying levels. While ADN is a technical degree in nursing BSN competency reveals professional nurse. Hence the difference arising is ADN being trained in clinical skills, while training for BSN is focused on nursing research, leadership, management alongside clinical skills. AND can be received in 2 years while BSN is a four-year program that is accredited by a college or a university. Thus, ADN is able to render patient care by the administration of oral medications, IV medication, airway or cardiac monitoring, wound care, blood transfusion and so on, hence implement appropriate family-centric patient care (Ghaffari, 2017). BSN are able to render healthcare in all domains such as maternal health, adult health, newborn nursing, pediatric nursing, and community health nursing. BSN are able to undertake critical thinking approaches with leadership, case management-based health promotions. Thus, BSN is able to render appropriate nursing management with patient education and leadership, while ADN have only technical expertise only.
Patient Care Situation to Approach to Nursing Care
Role of BSN nurses is more appropriate when compared against ADN. In any relevant patient case requiring critical care, while a BSN is able to provide directional treatment with leadership approaches and patient education, ADN is able to only administer suitable medications. Hence in case of BSN patient care that is rendered is more patient-centric and comprise of whole-some care, whereas for ADN they are only specific care-based approaches not able to render complete patient care to the client (Anbari, 2015). The difference arises from the distinction in nursing care and scope of practice as ADN have limited practice capabilities and BSN can act within a much broader spectrum of activities. On the basis of education, BSN has much more capabilities and competencies as compared to ADN.
Evidence-Based Practice Application in RN-BSN Education
RN-BSN education in nursing care is focused on the application of evidence-based practice. RN while delivering care to their patients focus on providing validated interventions. In the BSN program, nurses are taught regarding evidence-based practice (EBP) that enables them to adopt care strategies that can assist their patients. In recent times, EBP has emerged as a key component in rendering exception care for patients (Orta et al., 2016). Applying EBP in nursing includes accommodation of research evidence, patient’s preference ad clinical expertise for a problem-solving approach in clinical practice for individualized patient care. RN-BSN for applying EBP develops clinical questions for identifying a problem, gathers evidence, then analyses then to apply it to clinical practice. In the end, they assess the results of EBP applied for understanding effective results.
Interdisciplinary Teams Communication and Collaboration with
BSN nurses as well as AND need to undertake communication and collaborate across differentteams such that patients can be rendered effective and safer patient outcomes (Gausvik et al., 2015). Patients often required varied diversified approaches such that they are able to attend to the diversified patient needs.
References
Anbari, A. B. (2015). The RN to BSN transition: A qualitative systematic review. Global qualitative nursing research, 2, 2333393615614306.
Butts, J. B. (2013). Philosophies and theories for advanced nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H., &Schlaudecker, J. (2015). Structured nursing communication on interdisciplinary acute care teams improves perceptions of safety, efficiency, understanding of care plan and teamwork as well as job satisfaction. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 8, 33.
Ghaffari, M. (2017). Preparing Nurses for Community Health Care: A Comparative Study of the ADN and BSN Programs. Nursing assignment International Journal, 5(2), 32-45.
Orta, R., Messmer, P. R., Valdes, G. R., Turkel, M., Fields, S. D., & Wei, C. C. (2016). Knowledge and competency of nursing faculty regarding evidence-based practice. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 47(9), 409-419.
