Contemporary Nursing Practice ASS PDF

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Nursing Theory and Conceptual presentation....

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CONTEMPORARY NURSING PRACTICE

NRS -430V-0502- Professional Dynamics. Name Grand Canyon University December 8, 2019.

Evolution of Nursing Practice

In the ancient days evil spirits were blamed for disease and death and women who attempted to take care of the sick were considered to be witches (Spector 2004). This left men to be the ones to take care of the sick and injured and nursing was considered to be a calling from God. Management was by trial and error basis since science and research were not yet known worse still evidence-based practice. Over the years the nursing practice has made significant contributions to society. A pioneer known as Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) started the nursing profession we have today, she claimed to have received a calling from God to serve the sick and those who were injured during Crimean war (British Heritage Society, 2014, para, 3), apparently, the conditions for the ill and the injured soldiers were very much inhuman. Nightingale strongly believed that nurses should take a leadership role to improve healthcare. She convinced the military officials to make significant changes in the hospital environment and patient care improved drastically. At this time, she started engaging research in her practice and wrote a book “notes on Nursing”, defining nursing. She later founded the Nightingale training school for nurses in 1860 in London England this training school provided basic nursing education. Due to many demands in nursing more schools are now opened and the nursing programs have improved from basic nursing training of 2 years to 3 years RN diploma and now from RN to BSN. Research and evidence-based practice has since been embarked in the nursing training program thus making patient outcome very effective and efficient. Nursing now as many specialties which includes ICU, OT, Community health, Mild wifely, Pediatrics, and Anesthesia to mention but a few, giving one a wider choice of where to specialize in the approach that has improved the treatment of an individual so much.

Differences in competencies between Associate Degree Nurses and Baccalaureate Nurses: Scope of Practice Associate degree nurses are mainly trained to be bedside nurses in hospital setup while a baccalaureate degree nurse can practice in multiple settings since healthcare system is not only centered on inpatients but throughout the community care and this disadvantage the associate degree nurse. The evolution of nursing puts baccalaureate degree nurses to be the ones in managerial positions and many hospitals today are employing nurses with bachelor’s degree in nursing (hood, 2010, pg,18) Educational Difference Associates degree nursing training is done in 2 years while baccalaureate nurse training is 4 years. The baccalaureate degree nurses are educated to engage in independent thinking and to provide care to patients with complex and differing health alterations. However, both nurses do NCLEX in order to be registered with the board of nursing and get a license to practice in the USA. ADN and BSN have the nursing theory and technology and both do patient assessment but that of BSN nurses is usually more comprehensive. In other words, the baccalaureate level nurses have a broader body of knowledge than the associate degree nurse.

Skills Due to the comprehended training that BSN go through critical thinking and evidence-based practice is more pronounced in the skills of BSN than ADN. BSN nurses are more scientific in their decision-making and very organized in their work while ADN nurses are usually task

oriented with good clinical skills than the BSN nurses. Because nurses make decisions that affect patients’ lives, safety and quality of care are improved with level of nursing education.

Approaches to decision-making between the baccalaureates and associate degree nurses In a situation where a patient with congestive heart failure is receiving blood transfusion and prior to blood transfusion the vital signs were within normal ranges and the lung sounds were clear bilaterally and towards the end of blood transfusion the nurse noticed that saturation of oxygen is dropping below 95% and the chest sounded moist. She puts the patient on 2l/min nasal cannula oxygen saturation still remains at 90%, a BSN nurse because she has been trained to think outside the box will quickly think of the patient probably being overloaded with fluids considering that the patient has got congestive heart failure and may need a diuretic to remove the excess fluids while associate degree nurse because she is task oriented she would increase the oxygen to 3l/min to get the saturation above 95%. The BSN nurse mainly consider scientific evidence before making any clinical decision while associates degree nurses may not have the detailed knowledge to make confident decisions.

Significance of Applying Evidence Based Practice to Nursing Care. Evidence-based practice is important because it supports patient centered care which is seen to improve patient outcome. As patients’ needs become more complex, nurses use problem solving approaches like evidence-based practice. The curriculum of RN to BSN focuses on research and clinical expertise which are components of evidence-based practice They are prepared to focus

on the quality and safety of individuals, families and communities across the life span (Creasia and Freiberg 2011).

Communication and Collaboration of Nurses with Interdisciplinary Teams Effective communication and collaboration with interdisciplinary teams is very important in nursing because it improves patient outcome, prevents medical errors and improves efficiency. Technology: the use of electronic medical record enables interdisciplinary communication and it is a tool being used by nurses. Exchange of thoughts, opinions or information through speech writing or signs as well as communication through emails and paper notes is utilized.

References: American Association of Colleges of nursing “The impact of Education on Nursing Practice”. Dynamics in Nursing: Art and Science of Professional Practice. Retrieved from https://www.gcumedia.com/digital-resources/grand-canyon-university/2018/dynamics-innursing_art-and-science-of-professional-practice_1e.php. https://study moose.com/the difference between associate degree and baccalaureate degree

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