Contemporary Nursing Practice

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.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

ANSWER

Contemporary Nursing Practice

The evolution evident in the nursing profession has resulted in a mass shift of healthcare workers from households to hospitals, outpatient clinics and schools. Healthcare workers have been inspired and faced with an array of transformations. In other words, healthcare settings changes are paramount to ensure enhanced and improved quality of care to meet the community’s growing demands. According to Salmond and Echevarria (2017), the need for change is vital to the individual and society at large. Enhancing and embracing changes in healthcare is the cornerstone towards transforming the lives of individuals on the globe. For this case, the need for various health stakeholders is vital to ensure up-to-date care has been availed to the clients and patients. Addressing these conditions require a positive transformation as the etiologies of some diseases like Type II diabetes is believed to arise from lifestyle in contemporary society. The detailed discussion is a review of the possible transformation evident in healthcare and their implications in the overall scope of practice for the treatment of people in the community.

Initially, nursing was tasked to women who served the society by offering the little care to sick people for the case of Florence Nightingale. Their primary concern and roles were alleviating pain from the injured people and providing basic needs to the families. In contemporary society, nursing has seen a tremendous transformation in multiple sectors (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).

One of the sectors where the profession has been influenced is training. Unlike in the ancient communities where nurses were allowed to offer simple practice to the patients, the present society allows nursing students to undergo a competitive and quality training to acquire extensive knowledge on the treatment and care of patients with different conditions (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). During their time of training, nurses help healthcare centers establish tremendous improvement in both the quality and safety of clients and patients and offer humanized medical intervention. Also, nurses are now encouraged to seek progression in their nursing profession beyond entry-level to both graduates and post-graduates. Therefore, this allows the growing country’s demands for advanced and improved care to be filled by these registered nurses.

Another tremendous change in nursing is on duties and responsibilities. This is yet another highlight in the nursing profession’s evolution, and thus, nursing is no longer considered care-taking only (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). The current nursing profession is believed to be an integration of concrete judgment, skills and knowledge. The best way to realize this is what is evident now where nurses can now offer multiple services as what physicians provide. The enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 facilitated nurses to provide numerous benefits. Some nurses go an extra mile to work with doctors and thus gain more training, which increases their responsibilities. The outcome is an expanded nursing profession where healthcare providers could assist doctors and manage universal illness (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).

Another critical aspect of transformation in nursing is specialization. With specialization due to the medical advancement and shifting needs of the patients and clients, nurses are now allowed to specify their practice area at an advanced level. Unlike ancient nursing, care and treatment were universal to everyone with no special training (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017).

Due to the increasing healthcare demands globally, both associate and baccalaureate education are paramount in the provision of special training to equip nurses with enough clinical skills useful in the care and treatment of patients (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). With the enhancing scope of nursing, associate nurses are considered to provide clinical skills in hospital settings. On the other hand, baccalaureate education aims to enhance leadership skills that can be used universally to improve the quality of care among healthcare settings. In professional skills, ADN nurses are equipped with technical skills to work in various clinical settings. On the other hand, BSN nurse is considered as a professional nurse (Brusie, 2020).

Evidence-based practice is based on the existing methods proven to offer a solution in the clinical settings. Application of evidence-based practice is paramount in providing a solution to the presenting healthcare condition based on the account’s steps and interventions (Chien, 2019). For both RN and BSN nurses, evidence-based practice is necessary to enhance the nature of the intervention. Through training, student nurses are introduced to various evidence-based case studies that allow for the synthesis of new ideas that will later be applied in the later stages of their careers.

One of the interdisciplinary team’s prominent roles is allowing nurses the opportunity to effectively advocate for the patient and client, serving as the leader of the team, serving as a member in enhancing the commitment of nurses to care of the client and patient. Moreover, it allows them to apply multiple group skills, including compromise, resolution of conflicts, negotiations, and consensus in utilizing creative problem solving and decision-making skills. All these aim to help the universal healthcare sectors achieve the patient and client’s desired goals and outcome (“Collaboration with the interdisciplinary team: NCLEX-RN,” 2016).

Conclusively, lifestyle changes and the emergence of novel conditions among people drive the need for advanced care and thus the need for change. Enacting laws and policies to foster these changes is essential to the benefit of society at large. Every stakeholder in the health care sector to team up and provide an amicable solution to the best change ever that will enhance the community’s life in both present and the future.

References

Chaunie Brusie. (2020). ADN vs BSN. Retrieved from: https://nurse.org/education/adn-vs-bsn-degree/

Collaboration with interdisciplinary team: NCLEX-RN. (2016, June 30). https://www.registerednursing.org/nclex/collaboration-interdisciplinary-team/

Chien L. Y. (2019). Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Research. The journal of nursing research : JNR, 27(4), e29. https://doi.org/10.1097/jnr.0000000000000346

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, 33–37. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S72623

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare Transformation and Changing Roles for Nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308

Why teamwork and communication are critical in nursing. (2019, January 10). Eastern Illinois University Online. https://learnonline.eiu.edu/articles/rnbsn/teamwork-communication-critical-in-nursing.aspx