The field of nursing has changed over time

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.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

ANSWER

Nursing Practice

Changes in the Nursing Practice

Today the nursing practice has changed drastically with more diversified staff, training program and a level of prestige linked to this area of medical field. Due to the changes in the healthcare industry and new technology within the healthcare industry, the nursing profession has continued to evolve with new healthcare needs that have required the nurses to obtain better knowledge and skills that will enable them to offer quality healthcare services (Finkelman, 2017). Over the years the nurses have begun learning tasks that were preserved for the physicians. Nurses have now been allowed to take more responsibilities than ever since they have been taken as respected medical professionals. For instant, consultations and care have been offered via telemedicine which is one of the most recent changes in the nursing practices. This has enabled the nurses to improve the quality of care with a patient centered approach. Changes have been observed within the nursing care practice especially when it comes to patient risk management, patient safety as well as delivery of healthcare.

Associate and Baccalaureate Education in Nursing

Baccalaureate education in nursing enables a nurses to handle complex situations as well as more extensive roles within the nursing practice (Matthias and Kim-Godwin, 2016). A nurses possessing Baccalaureate degree has been prepared to carry out nursing activities within the healthcare setting that are crucial such as critical care, outpatient care, public health as well as mental health care. They are also equipped with skills and knowledge that allows them to deliver high quality care in outpatient centers, private homes and in hospitals that focus on acute care. On the other hand, nurses with an associate degree are not offered with complex and broad nursing roles. A nurse having the ADN is often knowledgeable with the general nursing education. These include nutrition, nursing basics, pediatric nursing, physiology, clinical nursing and anatomy. A BSN nurse is a more competent nurse since they have knowledge in humanistic, clinical and scientific skills that enable them to handle more complex nursing roles.
How Patient Care Situation Differ Between The BSN‐Prepared Nurse and The ADN Nurse.

After completing the Associate nurse degree, I worked in a nursing home where I encountered challenges determine the condition of illness for patients with chronic illnesses. This influenced my approaches and abilities to make effective care decisions. After enrolling for the BSN program I gained skills and knowledge on how to examine the condition of illness in a more detailed and effective way thus facilitating better management in nursing. With the skills and knowledge that I acquired from the BSN program I was able to determine which patient should be given a priority based on the diagnostic assessment and severity of the illness. BSN program has also allowed me to make valid decisions regarding the health of the patients.

Applying evidence‐based practice to nursing care

Evidence based practice is considered as the process of gathering, processing and implementing research findings that improve clinical practice and patient outcomes. Utilization of EBP method to nursing has enabled the nurses offer cost efficient and high quality care to the patients. Evidence based practice has offered the nurses with effective technique to rely on scientifically proven and critically appraised evidence to deliver high quality care (Fiset, Graham and Davies, 2017). The importance of applying evidence based practice to nursing care is essential since it offers the nurses with valid grounds concerning the care of patients. The RN-BSN nurse programs have supported the application of evidence based practice through encouraging the nursing students to pay attention to patient’s health decisions based on the scientific research evidence obtained from the conducted tests on the patients.

Nurses Communication and Collaboration with interdisciplinary teams

The healthcare setting is a complex organization that demands communication and collaboration to solve multifaceted and complex patient care issues. Team work and collaboration have played a great role in changing the health care industry, the quality of care and the patient outcomes. This has allowed a decentralized healthcare system which contains collaboration among several level of health workers. Working together has created health promotion since the health worker work together to coordinate the well-being of patients. Considerably, this is because no longer is an individual healthcare professional responsible for the well-being of the patient. Collaboration and communication allowed the nurses and health workers to clearly communicate with each other and ensure quality treatment.

References

Finkelman, A. (2017). Professional nursing concepts: Competencies for quality leadership. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Fiset, V. J., Graham, I. D., & Davies, B. L. (2017). Evidence-based practice in clinical nursing education: a scoping review. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(9), 534-541.

Matthias, A. D., & Kim-Godwin, Y. S. (2016). RN-BSN students’ perceptions of the differences in practice of the ADN-and BSN-prepared RN. Nurse educator, 41(4), 208-211.