Over time, the practical skills of nurses have undergone significant changes. Caring for the patient was the manifestation of compassion to a person in need. Moreover, women had to take care of the sick to a greater extent than men. Among the nations of the Ancient World, only relatives took care of the sick people. There were no specific medicals who would devote themselves to the task of caring for the sick, with the exception of only women involved in assisting maternity patients and newborns.
International nurse’s day is celebrated on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who made an invaluable contribution to the development of nursing. On June 26, 1860, Nightingale opened the world’s first school for the training of nurses in London at St. Thomas Hospital. Currently, the demand for high-quality nursing services is caused by the patient-centered nursing approach. A nurse is to know everything about her patient, starting with a diagnosis, necessary laboratory tests, a treatment plan, the need for physiotherapy, and ending with the family situation, and living conditions at home. Nursing has become an inherent part of health care, so a future in medicine will be correlated with expanding in medical services and increasing in an amount of registered nurses.
In the United States, many different options for continuing education and specialization of nurses take place, including university programs for a master’s and doctoral degree. There are the following degrees granted in nursing: Associate of Science and Bachelor of Science in nursing. The competences of bachelors involve studying leadership skills, critical thinking, and in-depth immersion in nursing theory. A bachelor’s degree in nursing allows focusing on the diagnosis, analyzing the patient’s medical results. Associate education in nursing assumes basic knowledge and technical skills. The nurses who have a bachelor’s degree are more independent in decision-making processes.
All professional nursing programs, ADN and BSN, train nurses to provide care that meets generally accepted standards, regardless of whether the procedures are performed in person or delegated to assistants. It should be born in mind that BSN nurses are preferable in many hospitals. The studies show that mortality is lower, and emergency results are better when most staff have BSN (Loversidge et al., 2018).
Traditional undergraduate programs in nursing include all courses taught in the ADN program. BSN programs target more advanced training in social sciences, management, research, and public health. Therefore, for example, in a situation where a bed patient in the intensive care unit needs regular help, procedures, and prescribing, the BSN nurse will be more professional. In the context mentioned above, both ADN and BSN nurses are responsible for patient care, medication, and prescription. Anyway, the latter makes more professional decisions concerning diagnosis and preventive measures.
A nurse in the United States is positioned as a doctor’s partner. It seems to be logical because a nurse is continuously in contact with the patient, satisfies all his or her needs, responds promptly to the deterioration of the physiological and psychological well-being. According to Luttik et al. (2017), great significance is paid to the building of relationships with relatives of patients; for instance, care of cardiovascular patients is expected to be beneficial for them. It is the nurse who collects and analyzes all the information about the patient’s condition, and only she or he can consult the doctor in detail about the sick. A strict division of responsibilities exists not only between sisters and doctors but also within the nursing hierarchy, which develops in the clinic depending on the level of staff competence.
It is the RNs in the USA that personifies the specialty of a nurse. Researchers note that registered nurses, controlling assistants and nurses, perform an impressive range of functions (Wojnar & Whelan, 2017). They assess the condition and symptoms, keep a patient’s medical history, provide the sick with medicines, collaborate with other medical specialists, and consult doctors to create an individual treatment plan. Finally, the RNs provide emotional, psychological, and spiritual support to the patients, their families, and friends. They act as a kind of mediator between the patient and the clinic. BSN nurses perform the same functions of RNs, but they have advanced education and may use its benefits for promotion in public health.
Communicating with professionals from multidisciplinary teams can provide an opportunity for the active development of nursing. Collaboration within the team shares responsibility for achieving group goals and seeks mutually beneficial inter-professional cooperation in order to improve the quality of nursing care. Clear decision-making procedures contribute to the development of managerial alternatives among registered nurses, which means improving the quality of services provided. Negative factors caused by diverging interests may interfere with patient performance.
Interdisciplinary communication and cooperation involve referring to the existing hierarchical professional structure inherent in the provision of medical care. A respectful atmosphere and a favorable environment enhance the health of patients at the psychological and psychophysical levels, and therefore, support safer and more effective patient outcomes. A wide range of methods and strategies to promote a healthy lifestyle, developed in conjunction with specialists from related specialties, expands the scope of preventive measures against several diseases.
References
Loversidge, J., Yen, P. Y., Chipps, E., Gallagher-Ford, L., Genter, L., & Buck, J. (2018). Top-of-license nursing practice, Part 2: Differentiating BSN and ADN perceptions of top-of-license activities. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(6), 329-334.
Luttik, M. L. A., Goossens, E., Ågren, S., Jaarsma, T., Mårtensson, J., Thompson, D. R.,… and Undertaking Nursing Interventions Throughout Europe (UNITE) research group. (2017). Attitudes of nurses towards family involvement in the care for patients with cardiovascular diseases. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 16(4), 299-308.
Wojnar, D. M., & Whelan, E. M. (2017). Preparing nursing students for enhanced roles in primary care: The current state of prelicensure and RN-to-BSN education. Nursing Outlook, 65(2), 222-232.