NRS-440VN Week 3 Assessment Description Paper
NRS-440VN Week 3 Assessment Description Paper
NRS-440VN Week 3 Assessment Description Paper
The nursing profession remains one of the most critical, not just in healthcare but also the overall job market and professional development as well as career paths. The report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity,” contains critical recommendation on improving the nursing profession to help address the current health care disparities and inequities. As such, the report places nurses at a strategic position as critical care providers to enhance care delivery and assist the nation thrive with a healthy population (Hassmiller et al., 2022). The report recommends lifelong learning and attainment of advanced education to help meet the rising healthcare demands. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and discuss the importance of nursing education and my overall educational goals.
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Options in the Job Market Based on Education Level
As a registered nurse (RN), I possess an associate degree in nursing meaning that I can work in a variety of healthcare settings. These include nursing homes, hospitals or any other healthcare setting to offer services to patients. I can also work as a supervisor for less-skilled certifies and licensed nurse practitioners. I can also work in outpatient care centers, physicians’ offices and insurance carriers as well as colleges, universities and professional schools. Furthermore, my level of education means that I can work in specialty hospitals and continuing care retirements communities as well as assisted living facilities. However, I know that upon completion of my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), I will have more options, including taking a specialty trajectory like anesthetics, pediatrics or oncology nursing. Registered nurses with associate degrees are generalists implying that one can handle an array of basic tasks like taking patients’ health histories, administering medications, ordering tests, and providing instructions to patients and helping physicians conduct examination and assessment of patients.
The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity
The report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is categorical that to attain health equity, the U.S. must invest robustly in nursing education. The report notes that strengthening nursing education prepares nurses to identify and address complex social, economic and environmental issues that impact health and wellbeing. The report recommends that nursing education should offer students substantive, diverse, and sustained community-founded experiences to enhance their responses to the issues that impact patients and health population (Hassmiller et al., 2022). The report also notes the role of professional nursing organizations to develop guidelines for nursing education to prepare nurses in dealing with health equity and social determinants of health in an effective manner.
Based on these recommendations, I want to get advanced degrees like the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) three years after completing this BSN. Further, I will advance my education to attain a terminal degree in nursing practice, the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP within the next ten years. Furthermore, I will also seek certification in the nursing specialty that I will select, from anesthetics to oncology so that I have sufficient skills and competencies to deal with patients having diverse conditions. The attainment of advanced nursing education is critical to offering quality care by improving my competencies in areas like cultural competent care (Mackavey et al., 2019). The attainment of advanced degrees, like the MSN will allow me to specialize in a certain area of choosing and improve my ability to provide better care. Studies show that advanced nursing degrees help nurses to offer better care compared to basic degrees like the ADN. Further, through the DNP, I can take leadership roles in policy development and implementation to enhance overall care delivery. As observed, I have timelines for the completion of these degrees and attainment of the goals. Cumulatively, I will take about seven years to attain the advanced education goals.
Effects of Increasing My Level of Education on Competitiveness in the Job Market
Increasing my educational level will improve my overall competitiveness in the job market. For instance, the increased demand for healthcare and expansion of practice authority for nurses as well as specialization means that nurses are at the core of care provision and improving their qualifications means that they can work as primary care providers in states with full practice authority like in Minnesota. The implication is that having advanced qualification will open up an array of opportunities for my practice in the state, especially as an independent nurse practitioner. The advanced nursing education qualification means that I can assume leadership position and help guide care delivery through teams of nurse practitioners. It also implies that I can develop policies and advocacy efforts to ensure attainment of health equity as advanced by the report by the National Academies.
Continuing Nursing Education, Competency, Attitudes & Knowledge
As captured by the report on the future of nursing, continuing education is a critical part of enhancing competence, knowledge and positive attitudes to patients. Nurses with advanced education have diverse perspective and accommodate patients from different backgrounds because of experiences, skills, and knowledge acquired. They can also handle different tasks upon improving their nursing knowledge and various skills. They can develop critical thinking skills to make better decisions and offer better care. Nurses with advanced education can apply evidence-based practice (EBP) quality improvement initiatives to enhance processes and the quality of care in their settings (Hassmiller et al., 2022). The implication is that continuing nursing education is essential in developing better competencies like cultural competency for nurses to deal with patients from diverse backgrounds (Lasater et al., 2021). Diversity in healthcare is a core aspect of quality care delivery and nurses who are not culturally-sensitive cannot offer patient-centered and holistic care to patients from different background.
Nurses with advanced education have better and positive attitudes toward patients, irrespective of their diversity. They nurture listening and empathetic skills so that they can better understand their patients and offer quality care through application of acquired knowledge. Continuing nursing education is critical to ensuring that nurses follow professional scope and standards for practice set by the American Nurses Association. The Code of Ethics is essential for nurses to offer ethical care that respects human dignity and values (Mackavey et al., 2019). As such, continuing education ensures that one can interpret and integrate these ethical expectations to deliver better and patient-centered care.
Continuing Nursing Education as Compulsory
Research studies are categorical that advanced nursing education improves a nurse’s skills, knowledge and even attitudes in care provision Lasater et al., 2021). Reports and recommendations as demonstrated by the current report by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shows that advanced education has several benefits for nurses and patients. Nurses acquire better skills and competencies in care delivery and expand their professional development as well as career paths (Altmiller et al., 2019). Despite these benefits, continuing nursing education should remain optional and not compulsory since it is a personal decision. Individuals understand their needs and will select what they want based on their set goals. As such, it is their discretion to pursue higher education or not.
Conclusion
The need to improve nursing education cannot be overemphasized as studies are categorical that it provides a host of benefits to nurses and their management of health care. The report by the National Academies in Science, Engineering and Medicine asserts that nursing is a critical component of attaining health equity in the country. As such, nurses should seek advanced education to improve their skills and competitiveness in the job market.
References
Altmiller, G., & Hopkins-Pepe, L. (2019). Why quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN)
matters in practice. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 50(5), 199-200.
DOI: 10.3928/00220124-20190416-04.
Hassmiller, S. B., & Wakefield, M. K. (2022). The Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a
path to achieve health equity. Nursing Outlook, 70(6), S1-S9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2022.05.013
Lasater, K. B., Sloane, D. M., McHugh, M. D., Porat‐Dahlerbruch, J., & Aiken, L. H. (2021).
Changes in proportion of bachelor’s nurses associated with improvements in patient outcomes. Research in Nursing & Health, 44(5), 787-795. DOI: 10.1002/nur.22163.
Mackavey, C., & Cron, S. (2019). Innovative strategies: Increased engagement and synthesis in
online advanced practice nursing education. Nurse education today, 76, 85-88.
DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2019.01.010
Wakefield, M., Williams, D. R., & Le Menestrel, S. (2021). The future of nursing 2020-2030:
Charting a path to achieve health equity. National Academy of Sciences.
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Assessment Description
“The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” report makes recommendations for lifelong learning and achieving higher levels of education.
In 1,000-1,250 words, examine the importance of nursing education and discuss your overall educational goals.
Include the following:
Discuss your options in the job market based on your educational level.
Review “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” report’s recommendations for achieving higher levels of education. Describe what professional certification or advanced degrees (MSN, DNP, etc.) you may want to pursue and explain your reasons for wanting to attain this education. Discuss the timeline for accomplishing these goals.
Discuss how increasing your level of education would affect how your competitiveness in the current job market and your role in the future of nursing.
Discuss the relationship of continuing nursing education to competency, attitudes, knowledge, and the ANA Scope and Standards for Practice and Code of Ethics.
Discuss whether continuing nursing education should be mandatory. Provide support for your response.
You are required to cite a minimum of three sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years, appropriate for the assignment criteria, and relevant to nursing practice.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Note: This Assignment will be submitted for plagiarism check
