Abstract
The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing are an integral part of master’s education in nursing. They provide an understanding of the qualities and capacities graduates of master’s programs should have. There are nine Essentials that refer to various aspects of nursing practice, including the utilization of evidence, applying existing knowledge in the field, the implementation of technologies, and collaboration with other healthcare professionals. The presented paper discusses and interprets each of these Essentials, as well as explains how they affect nursing practice.
Introduction
The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing are designed to guide master’s education programs in nursing. They identify the outcomes expected of the nurse graduates of such programs and show the issues that should be addressed during the course of education. This paper provides a brief description of each of the nine Essentials, reflecting on how they can affect practice and featuring their possible interpretation.
Essential I: Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities
This Essential implies that a nurse uses the scientific findings of the fields of nursing, public health, genetics, quality improvement, and biopsychology to enhance nursing care continuously across different settings (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This Essential can affect and improve the clinical practice significantly, as nurses can apply a multifaceted approach to care and achieve improved patient outcomes. The possible interpretation of this essential is that care providers should be able to analyze clinical cases from several scientific foundations to gain a full perspective on them and select treatment methods appropriately.
Essential II: Organizational and Systems Leadership
The second Essential refers to the significance of organizational and systems leadership for providing safe and high-quality care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). It recognizes the value of leadership capacities in critical and ethical decision-making processes, as well as establishing effective working relationships. This essential can affect practice significantly because it implies that care providers should advocate for positive changes in organizational policies. Its interpretation suggests that leadership is an integral part of effective nursing practice.
Essential III: Quality Improvement and Safety
This Essential implies that a nurse should be precise in the utilization of tools, standards, and methods related to quality (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). In addition, a care provider should be prepared to implement the quality-related principles within a healthcare organization. This essential can improve the quality of services critically, as it supports the implementation of evidence-based practice, which is a vital aspect of nursing (Hande, Williams, Robbins, Kennedy, & Christenbery, 2017). The third Essential can be interpreted in the following way: nurses should choose the most appropriate tools to assess individuals’ health state and the most effective methods to improve it.
Essential IV: Translating and Integrating Scholarship into Practice
The fourth Essential suggests that a nurse can resolve potential research problems, apply the findings within the practice setting, and advocate for change (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This idea affects practice because it ensures that care providers use evidence to guide their services and rely on proven diagnosis and treatment methods. The possible interpretation of this Essential is that translating academic findings into practice is vital for ensuring positive patient outcomes and preventing possible medical errors.
Essential V: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies
This Essential recognizes the nurse’s ability to implement patient-care technologies to enhance the quality of care, as well as utilize communication technologies to coordinate care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This concept is vital for practice, as it improves patient outcomes allowing care providers to incorporate the most modern approaches to diagnosis and treatment. This Essential can be interpreted in the following way: nurses should be able to use the latest available methods to provide appropriate and timely care, as well as interact with their colleagues effectively.
Essential VI: Health Policy and Advocacy
This Essential implies that a nurse can intervene in the existing system through the process of policy development and can influence health and healthcare through advocacy (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). It is possible to say that the sixth Essential can affect care too because it encourages care providers to discuss the aspects of care they are concerned about and suggest improvement on the organizational and national level. It can be interpreted as the fact that nurses have a vital role in affecting healthcare and should use their power to improve approaches to practice.
Essential VII: Interprofessional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes
The seventh Essential recognizes that a nurse is a member of interprofessional teams and is able to communicate and collaborate with her colleagues to manage care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This Essential affects practice significantly as it aims to minimize potential conflicts and help healthcare providers to use collaborative effort in improving patient outcomes. The possible interpretation of this Essential is that collaboration is a vital part of ensuring positive health outcomes, and nurses should use their colleagues’ expertise to enhance the quality of care.
Essential VIII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving Health
This Essential suggests that a nurse implements client-centered, culturally appropriate, and broad concepts in the delivery and management of prevention and population care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This idea can affect nursing practice too because it implies that care providers should be aware of the implications of cultural and social factors in preventing poor patient outcomes and managing care in diverse populations. This Essential can be interpreted in the following way: a client-centered approach with the consideration of all factors related to individuals’ health and habits are vital in clinical prevention and improving public health.
Essential IX: Master’s-Level Nursing Practice
The last Essential suggests that, at the master’s level, nurses’ practice can be identified as any form of intervention that affects healthcare outcomes for individuals, systems, and populations (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). At this level, individuals should have a high level of proficiency in nursing and relevant fields and be able to apply this knowledge into practice. This Essential is crucial for practice, as it ensures that nurses with a master’s degree have enough qualifications and expertise to provide care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). The possible interpretation of this Essential is that it is vital for care providers to have a deep understanding of their field, as well as related ones, to establish high-quality services.
Conclusion
This report shows that the Essentials can affect nurses’ practice significantly as they reveal the expected learning outcomes of master’s program graduates. The Essentials reveal that care providers should have expanded knowledge in nursing and related fields, be able to establish evidence-based services, and implement technologies. In addition, they should advocate for changes and show leadership to ensure effective organizational policies and positive patient outcomes.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011). The Essentials of master’s education in nursing. Web.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2017). Nurse faculty tool kit for the implementation of the Master’s Essentials. Web.
Hande, K., Williams, C. T., Robbins, H. M., Kennedy, B. B., & Christenbery, T. (2017). Leveling evidence-based practice across the nursing curriculum. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 13(1), 17-22.