Essays on Registered Nurses

Differences in competencies between nurses prepared at the ADN versus the BSN

The nursing curriculum has been evolving over time to meet the needs and demands of the population which have been changing over time. In a bid to ensure that care delivery meets the optimal goals of recovery, restoration and sustaining a high quality of life, the basic foundation for the nursing profession has been on ensuring that the curriculum adequately prepares the nurses for the tasks ahead (Auerbach, Buerhaus, & Staiger, 2015). A particular response that the profession can refer is the Future of Nursing Report by the Institute of Medicine which required that nurses be allowed to the highest ...

The main objective of any health care system is to provide patient care with desirable patient outcomes. Simply put, a health care system strives to promote well-being and heath status of all human beings. It is also important to note that most aspects of the healthcare focus on prevention and management of pain among patients because freedom from pain is an essential dimension of health. Additionally, pain among patients is a multidimensional phenomenon that requires a broad, integrated and a comprehensive care model (Glare et al., 2014). Many studies that have been carried out by various scholars on health ...

Sicko is a documentary film that focuses the healthcare problem and insurance related frauds happening in the U.S. The documentary was released in 2007. During this time, 15 million Americans in the U.S did not have insurance. It was heart moving to see Fill having to choose among his two fingers, as he could not afford to have both the finger, even when healthcare has the ability to restore both the fingers. As Fill did not have the money to get both his finger attached following the accident, he let go of one. This documentary is an eye opener ...

Healthcare organizations face a big problem now when it comes to nurse staffing and scheduling. There appears a big scarcity problem in the number of nurses when assigned per patient. Researches done during the past decades have established the importance of having enough nursing staff or registered nurse staffing as they play a huge role in achieving positive patient outcomes, safety, and satisfaction. This means an adequate nurse to patient ratio promotes reduction in patient mortality, enhances outcomes, and improves nurse satisfaction when it comes to their work. For instance, one study pointed out that for every patient assigned ...

Impact of Technology on the Nursing Profession

Introduction Registered nurses sometimes work alone or in collaboration with doctors to provide health care services to patients. The roles of registered nurses include taking and recording patients’ symptoms, diagnosing health problems, and administering drugs and treatment (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). To be successful in the nursing profession, every registered should perform theses role efficiently. Just like all other industries, technology has revolutionized the healthcare industry. These technological advancements do not change nursing fundamentals but rather make the jobs of nurses easier. As such, a nurse should be aware of these methods and be willing to incorporate the ...

Abstract

Numerous attempts to reform health care in the United States on the federal level have been made since the 1930s, but differences between each state represent a significant barrier to every previous federal health care reform. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law, but the current implementation and effects of the law are not the same across different states. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the effects of the health care reform in California and Florida, as well as the positions of the two states. It was found that the insurance ...

The Role of Advanced Practice Nursing

As much as advanced nursing practice has continued to develop over the years across the globe, there is a prejudice in regards to the qualification, education preparations, roles, and competencies that nurses gain to qualify them for independent practice. However, research has consistently shown that APNs give patient care that is better or equal to what physicians offer, and at a reduced cost (Jokiniemi, Haatainen & Pietila, 2015). In this regard, it is vital to encourage advanced nursing practice among all registered nurses so as to ensure they all utilize their full potential independently without physicians’ supervision. Certainly, this process ...

Summary of Ethical Dilemma: Low Nurse-Patient Ratio

There is an existing nursing shortage in America today primarily because of the increasing number of patients in the aging population, frequency of chronic diseases, an aging workforce, and the limited number of Americans taking up Nursing education to cover the growing needs for the profession. The nursing field belongs to the group of fastest-growing careers not only in America, but in other countries as well. However, the demand surpasses the supply of nurses, which results in high nurse to patient ratio. As a consequence, quality care that patients supposedly should receive from the medical industry suffers. Studies reveal ...

1. State the purpose of the study and identify the problem. The paper “Tragedy into Policy: A Quantitative Study of Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Patient Advocacy Activities” by Lisa M. Black, presents research that was done on the attitudes of healthcare workers in Nevada regarding patient safety. The need to provide protection to patients in such settings is important as they are often profoundly affected by the prevailing beliefs and values that their caretakers have towards them. These cultural norms present an underlying problem when considering the results of poor patient care in a medical environment. The author’s intent ...

Introduction

This scholarly paper identifies the advantages of pursuing a post graduation degree in advanced practice nursing through systematic exploration of evidence – based research literature. Healthcare facilities affected with an acute shortage of nursing professionals and resultantly the existing nurses remain overburdened with additional work responsibilities. Due to the limited scope of clinical practice of the nursing workforce, the autonomous administration of healthcare interventions in complex medical emergencies proves to be a biggest challenge that leads to the deterioration of psychosocial as well as physiological conditions of the affected patients. Therefore, skills enhancement of registered nurses is the need of ...

The nursing shortage is a persistent and ongoing concern for the United States, especially in the context of the severe nursing shortage by 2020 due to the aging population. Although nursing is among the highest professions in the context of employment growth, the rapidly increasing health care demand will put a considerable amount of strain on nurses (American Nurses Association, 2016). The projected nursing shortage will have several effects on the nursing profession and the public regarding health care services and quality (Grant, 2016). The nurse-to-patient ratio will decrease considerably because the number of patients will increase substantially in ...

The trend of electronic cigarette usage among adolescent has increased in the recent era that contains nicotine and other tobacco products. The health care providers and pediatric nurses should be aware of the popularity and safety concern of the cigarette. They deliver the sufficient information to the patient and their family about the possible negative health effects of electronic cigarette.

Education about electronic cigarette

There are limited researches about negative health effects of e-cigarettes in the adolescent. From the evidences, it is found that the registered nurses have provided insufficient education about risks and undesirable effects of the cigarette. They have less education ...

Nantsupawat, A., Nantsupawat, R., Kulnaviktikul, W., & McHugh, M. D. (2015). Relationship between nurse staffing levels and nurse outcomes in community hospitals, Thailand. Nursing & health sciences, 17(1), 112-118. The study examines the relationship that exists between the staffing levels of nurses and the subsequent nurse outcomes whereby the study was conducted in various community hospitals in Thailand. According to the author understanding the various factors that influence nurse outcome especially job dissatisfaction as well as emotional exhaustion could enable policy makers as well as hospital administrators in developing strategies to enhance the satisfaction of nurses and minimize emotional exhaustion ...

The Implementation of the IOM Plan in the Field of Nursing

The field of Nursing reveals a summative view of future of development with the documentation of this report. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine authored the comprehensive and innovative report entitled The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (Altman, et al., 2015). This report is a response in some respect to changes in nursing which also came with the Affordable Care Act, and concerns for the protection of patients (Altman, et al., 2015). The report includes ten recommendations that effect the nursing industry, diversity in nursing, cultural awareness, and many other factors (Altman, et al., 2015). This report ...

Problem statement for research purpose: Hypertension can be a cause as well as a consequence of chronic kidney disease (CRD). A number of clinical studies have identified the harmful effects of uncontrolled hypertension on the kidney function (Kokubo, 2012; Berlowitz, 2016)). According to NIH statistics, 23.3% individuals without CKD had hypertension in a representative sample. On the other hand, 35.8% of individuals in stage 1, 48.1% in stage 2, 59.9% of stage 3 and 84.1% in stage 4-5 CKD had hypertension (National Institutes of Health, 2010). In stage 4 CKD, the glomerular filtration is the lowest at <15 ...

Section I: How is this currently impacting nursing practice?

Currently, the impact of 2010 IMO Report is being experienced in various implementations under the nursing practice. The education and training have been improved due to the introduction of innovative means. This target to ensure the level of nursing training education achieves the required skills for nursing practice. This education and training program are essential in ensuring all the registered nurses are qualified to undertake their mandate professionally (Goeschel, 2011). The nursing education system incorporates the current innovation in technology and application of latest medical instruments. This connects to the need for high qualified nurses to use this medical ...

The case is focused on Pre-Admission Testing Area (PATA) of Massachusetts General Hospital to investigate the actual capacity of PATA and provides some recommendations to improve its ability. It will identify the PATA operations and challenges in the hospital that need attention. PATA is an outpatient clinic in the hospital that conducts pre-operative assessments of surgical patients before their procedures. Massachusetts General Hospital is one of oldest and largest hospital in the U.S that is located in Boston. The hospital is providing healthcare services in the country and serving the nation. It has 23,000 employees who have delivered ...

Currently, the United States health care system is struggling with an acute shortage of health practitioners especially nurses who are the major and significant primary health providers and close allies of the patients on their journey to full recovery and enhancement of their well-being. Thus, there is a need to boost and support the effort that will increase the number of health care practitioners in the country. On the other hand, just like the rest of the world, United States is also an aging society and the general population keeps increasing. Notably, during the 21st century, persons of the ...

Introduction

The prevalence of Affordable Care Act (ACA) has reduced the healthcare cost and has extended the eligibility of Medicaid for 32 million Americans. The effect of Medicaid on the healthcare of elderly remains hindered due to the lack of access to care, whereas its effect on the healthcare outcomes have remained optimum and children (Fairman et al., 2011). The combined objective of Medicaid in accordance with the Affordable Care Act incorporates the provision of healthcare services to the low-income parents, children, pregnant women and disabled individuals and hence, the healthcare services for the nondisabled adults are not addressed by ...

Critical Review

Critical Review

The research identifies the recent issue of the patient centric care system as a major trend in the recent times. The patient centric care system is dependent on the feedback received from the patients. Therefore, the satisfaction of all the patients will be a key determinant of the assessment of any healthcare facility going into the future. Patient satisfaction is also included in the Medicare system whereby the hospitals that provide more satisfactory services receiving incentives from the federal government capped at two percent. As a result, the hospitals have been struggling to develop systems that will ...

Advanced practice registered nurses are registered nurses with a level of nursing practice that employs skills, experience and knowledge in nursing care. They have attained a Masters or post Master’s degree and have a specific role and serve a specific patient population ("APRNS in the U.S", 2016). With the education and certification, APRNs can assess, diagnose, prescribe medications and order laboratory and diagnostic tests. APRNs can be divided into 4 different areas of specialty: Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP), Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Certified registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), and Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM). A Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner is a ...

Abstract

Nurses have been responsible for providing primary health care in the modern health care system as well as all through history. Advance practice registered nurses can be certified in different roles. One of the important roles is that of a Geronotological Nursing Practitioner (GNP). Geriatric nurses have become a significant part of modern medicine as they are the primary care givers to elderly patients and it is recognized as a very critical advance practice nursing specialty. GNP’s are entrusted to manage a very critical part of patient care, and they have to be vigilant at all times to ...

The young generation endeavors to build a healthy and high-performance society based on principles of activity, vitality of the body and positivity. According to that and due to the fact of raising unfavorable disasters the popularity rating of starting the career within the healthcare area has been increasing throughout past decades. The many young adults show an interest in life saving and demonstrating their skills to provide the community with well-qualified medical workers such as registered nurses (RN). It is significant to absorb the features of the nursing profession in order to estimate its pros and cons for those ...

Nursing Information Quality

The use of physical restraints is a widely used intervention in healthcare practice. However, the use of physical restraints for psychiatric patients is to limit/control the movement of patients so that they do not harm themselves. However, the use of physical restraints is argued to have a negative impact on patients and personnel (Gausvik, Lautar, Miller, Pallerla, & Schliadecher, 2015). They are useful to handle maladaptive and violent behaviors of patients with mental disorders to reduce aggression and prevent injury. However, the use of this intervention technique raises questions related to the potential complications that are likely to emerge, stimulating ...

Introduction

Thesis: The registered nurse role has the nurse at its center and how they maintain an effective environment for the delivery of organized patient care services. Argument: It is important to consider how the registered nurses provide care, how they improve the care environment, and how the people they serve view the care.

Registered Nurses’ Vocational Nursing Job Duties

Nursing is characterized by legal and ethical principles Nurses are expected to assume responsibility for nursing actions that are within the defined legal and ethical tenets They take professional responsibility Harmonious Environment Involves the interaction between man and the environment They need to create a supportive ...

Thesis statement: The occupation of a Registered Nurse seems to take an enormous amount of responsibility. The duties of a Registered Nurse are many. Nurses also "assist physicians during treatments and examinations." The jobs of a Registered Nurse will be a challenge for me. The working conditions of a nurse range from one extreme to the next.

INTRODUCTION

The history and evolution of the Registered Nurses roles Nursing is a profession that begun as a result of women who cared for soldiers The Profession however developed latter on into the 19th century during which it was now viewed as an ...

The effective delivery of the healthcare services requires the effective nursing leadership in order to ensure that the nursing staff is highly motivated to incorporate the healthcare services. The current paper enlightens the prevalence of low morale among the nursing staff and recommends the intervention of the effective leadership style to enhance the staff morale.

PICOT Statement

The current paper incorporates the following PICOT statement: Among the nursing staff with low morale, can transformational leadership, compared to authoritarian leadership, increase the morale of the nursing staff in two months?

Problem: Low Morale among Nursing Staff

Intervention: Transformational Leadership Comparison: Authoritarian Leadership Outcome: Increased Morale among Nursing Staff ...

The complex healthcare system has faced a range of challenges over the past. In this regard, the most affected group of healthcare providers in the industry are nurses. According to the Institute of Medicine (2010), nurses represent the biggest segment of providers in the healthcare industry, totaling to more than 3 million practicing nurses. In this regard, the complexities and barriers existing in the system hinder the effective performance of nurses in healthcare delivery to the population. In an effort to improve the quality of healthcare, the government, through the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aimed to introduce drastic changes, ...

DQ 1

Impact of Projected Nursing Shortage

The Registered Nurses are considered the largest single unit of healthcare professionals within most of the labor industry across the globe for instance the U.S. currently the nursing profession is already experiencing a shortage of the Registered Nurses, the shortage is projected to continue being experienced as a result of the drop in the number of people entering the profession ("Nursing Shortage", 2016). The cyclic shortage is expected to affect the nursing profession by 2020 in various ways. First the shortage affects the quality of care offered by nurses, resulting from a few nursing ...

Communication in Healthcare Teams

Complementary Roles, Decision Making and Shared Responsibility Effective communication is necessary to be incorporated in the healthcare teams in order to ensure the enhanced wellbeing of patients by means of developing and implementing the patient care plans in an effective manner. The effective implementation of the care plans is based on the shared responsibility of the healthcare teams or multidisciplinary teams, in which the individual members of these teams are responsible to provide care to the patients. The patients in the intensive care units or long-term residential facilities require services from the individuals of different departments and team members, ...

Introduction

At first thought, it seems to strain credulity that nurses would want money for nursing research. The great majority, after all, are engaged with nursing tasks, which leaves very little time for anything else. But then the idea occurs that nurses know how to do their jobs, and do them well. And that knowledge came from somewhere, from nursing schools of education, certainly, but going further back, nurse educators know how to do their jobs, too, and they had to learn that somewhere. Enter nursing research. The people who do nursing research are few enough, on the grand scale ...

Abstract

The above paper seeks to outline the role of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) with a comparison of practices in two main states (Louisiana and Arkansas). The paper starts with a review of the prescriptive authority of APRN's in Louisiana, with an emphasis that the area faces a shortage of health professionals. According to the regulations of the state, it is a requirement that NP should offer prescription with an oversight of a physician. The collaborative practice agreement helps guide the two practitioners to work in close collaboration with one another in providing quality health care to the residents. ...

Introduction

Stakeholders are actors that have vested interests in a particular policy that is being implemented. A stakeholder analysis is a process of systematically collecting and evaluating information to establish whose interests should be considered when developing or implementing particular policies or actions (Shore, 2011). In this case, some of the stakeholders include patients, Canadian Cancer Society, and Registered Nurses ‘Association of Ontario.

Issue

Cancer is a serious condition that affects many individuals in contemporary societies. In the case of Cancer Care Ontario, the organization intends to roll out a new clinical protocol that will play a crucial role in cancer ...

Nursing is a career in the healthcare sector which focuses on taking care of patients, communities, and families so that they may recover from illnesses and achieve optimal health and a good quality of life. The nursing profession, like any other healthcare profession, is in constant transformation. The profession is continually becoming composite because healthcare provision is transforming from the hospitals to outpatient and primary care settings. For a number of years, nursing care has been developing from the bedside care provision to dedicated members of a medical team (American Nurses Association, 1985). For the effectiveness of a healthcare ...

The current shortage in the number of registered nurses in the US is expected to increase to more than 500 000 registered nurses by the year 2025 (MacKusick & Minick, 2010). The current nurse turnover rate in the United States, on the other hand, is 16.5%. This rate is also projected to rise over the next decade (Mazurenko, Gupte, & Shan, 2012). High rate of nurse turnover is one of the factors contributing to the nursing shortage in the US. It is estimated that 30%-50% of all new registered nurses change their positions or choose to leave the profession completely ...

The Registered Nurse Staffing Act

Introduction In the contemporary society, medical expenses form a big part of the house and family budget. Changes in lifestyles and cultures have resulted in an upsurge of various medical conditions. Increasing population also continues to threaten the capacity of nations and states to offer quality and safe care for their patients. In order for the department of health to ensure that patients get access to quality and safe care, priority has to be placed on the education levels and staffing techniques of the hospital. The nurses are the primary caregivers of any hospital, and thus, their competence and ...

Abstract

Every health organization has the goal of providing quality, safe, and cost-effective care to patients. Some safety issues reported in hospitals today question the role of the health sector in improving the health outcome of the community. Many hospitals record poor patient outcomes because of the inability of the management to plan duties and changes in shifts between nurses caring for patients in hospital wards. Poor inter-shift reports between registered nurses act as one of the most common problems threatening patients' safety and delivery of quality care in hospitals today. Technology plays a significant role in influencing communication between ...

Violence and Aggression

Introduction People express different types of behaviors that represent their physical, psychological, social, and emotional wellbeing. Two main concepts assist in explaining the behavior of a person. These are violence and aggression. These terms have a lot in common but differ in meaning and application. Violence refers to the use of physical force with an intention to cause harm or destroy property belonging to the opponent. On the other hand, aggression represents the violence behavior (Anonymous, 2016). Experts in the field of social psychology have done a lot of studies and observations to determine the relationship these two concepts ...

Introduction

The professional organizations and associations in nursing plays a crucial role towards promoting advanced and better health care. They’re charged with the responsibility to generate the energy, organization of ideas, and pre-emptive work required to sustain a healthy profession that promotes the needs and preferences of the nursing profession, nurses, and the patients. The associations improves the trust of society concerning health care matters. The paper will shed light on defining the scope of professional organizations in nursing, examine the scope, discuss the trending issues, and offer an analysis of the future of the nursing profession.

Define the scope of the issue

The role ...

Introduction

There are many different ways to which one can become a Registered Nurse (RN). These routes entail undergoing different forms of training. This training involves pursuing a diploma program, an associated degree and a baccalaureate degree in nursing. The diverse ways are mainly marked by different forms of education attainment. Baccalaureate nursing education involves training that takes place in both diploma and associate degree nursing plus some extra more courses and range of studies in other aspects. Studies have identified that the level of education attainment among the training of nurses makes a difference in their competencies and practice ( ...

I chose to visit Terrace health and rehabilitation center, a long-term care facility located outside Gainesville off Interstate 75 in Kentucky. However, this was not my first visit to the facility. I had been a very regular visitor of the facility between June and August of 2014 often visiting my grandmother who had been diagnosed with defective heart valves earlier the same year. On all the previous visits, I had been accompanied by other family members. My earlier visits to the facility enabled me to familiarize myself with the staff and the facility's set-up. Consequently, I chose it for ...

Introduction

Staffing issues in nursing that occur because of the growing shortage of nurses and huge budget cuts has been an ongoing concern for a long period (American Nursing Association, 2013). Registered nurses have acknowledged that the issue has led to longer working hours for nurses as they take care of sick patients. The situation puts both the safety of patient and nurses at risk. This has brought the need for adequate staffing levels to achieve the optimal nurse to patient ration that is now a national priority. The projected outcome of safe staffing include; reduced medication errors, a decrease ...

The professional nursing practice incorporates many elements that individual nurses should implement to achieve the acceptable patient outcome. The nursing professional holds the largest number of employees in the U.S. healthcare workforce and continues to grow as professionals introduce more initiatives and goals aimed at improving the quality of care. However, the presence of many barriers in the practice inhibits the ability of nurses to respond to changing health care settings and the expanding health care system. An effective evidence-based management practice promotes the overall practice of nursing by managing these barriers through the paradigm of Theory-Research-Practice-Policy. Robert Wood ...

Ethical problem

Stacy (2012) reviewed a case study of an irreversible case of pneumococcal pneumonia who had become mechanical ventilator support dependent. The male patient had decided to be removed from the ventilator and allowed to die with full knowledge of his irreversible condition and the eventual death that will come upon him after all life-maintaining support were removed. Although the family did not agree on the removal of the life-support treatment, they acceded to the wish of their father and approved the gradual removal of the ventilator referred to as terminal weaning. This case, unlike most controversial cases that leads ...

American Nurses Association (ANA) Scope and Standards of Practice vs. Public Health Nursing (PHN) practice Scope and Standards of Public Health Nursing

American Nurses Association (ANA) Scope and Standards of Practice vs. Public Health Nursing (PHN) practice Scope and Standards of Public Health Nursing Like most professional associations, nurses organize themselves into groups of practitioners to not only perform functions they cannot accomplish as separate individuals but also influence policy making in their area of expertise and adjudge one another as equally and professionally competent (American Nurses Association (ANA), 2010). In such associations, the practitioners also create, establish, and ...