Introduction
Nursing is an essential part of the healthcare system that has significant human resources and the capacity to meet the needs of the population for affordable and acceptable health care. Nursing specialists play a crucial role in ensuring the availability and quality of medical services provided to society, strengthening preventive orientation, and solving problems of medical and social care. This paper will discuss the evolution of nursing practice, education, and communication that influence patients’ outcomes and approaches to treating people.
Evolution of Nursing Practice
Until recently, patient care had been most instructive and empirical (when more reliance was placed on experience or observation than on scientific research). Gradually, the scope of practice has changed as nursing leadership, health promotion, ethical, and inclusion practices emerged and were implemented in hospitals. Nursing practice was transformed into an independent professional activity based on theoretical knowledge, evidence-based practice, scientific judgments, and clinical thinking.
Through trial and error, the nurse found the means that should help the patient, and many sisters became professional thanks to the accumulated experience of caring for patients. Nurses got an opportunity to get specialization and to familiarize themselves with high-tech technologies as patient records currently are digitalized (Papandrea, 2016). Due to these changes, the approach to treating the individual had changed accordingly: patients started getting individual, tailored treatment with fewer interruptions occurred while getting help (Bravo et al., 2016). In their work, nurses use knowledge in various disciplines, such as anatomy, physiology, pathology at the same time. Modern nursing had developed its scientific knowledge and methods of applying them in practice.
Associate and Baccalaureate Education in Nursing
The scope of practice between an associate and baccalaureate nurse has changed over time as the nursing responsibilities evolved. There appeared a differentiation between several stages of education that helped to get structured knowledge and skills required to get a license. The division of education also helped to determine who people should contact in different situations when it comes to a broader or narrower scope of practice.
An associate and baccalaureate education in nursing gives nurses similar practice courses nowadays, such as ethics, legislation, and standards of practice, nursing knowledge and skills, continuous learning and improvement, and evidence-based practice. At the same time, baccalaureate education gives nurses additional competencies, such as e-health and ICT in nursing, and healthcare research and development practice that an associate education lack, according to American Nurses Association (2015). Thus, baccalaureate education gives more sophisticated competencies and knowledge that helps nurses to participate in the quality improvement activities in nursing.
BSN- and ADN-prepared Nurse’s Differences
Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program prepares nurses to work in different care situations. Even though both degrees educate nurses to provide professional care, there is a difference between the BSN‐prepared nurse and the ADN nurse that is based on the quality of education nurses get (“ADN and BSN Nursing Pathways”). The BSN-educated nurses can make decisions based on research and analysis of historical and current data that helps a nurse to elaborate better solutions to patients’ situations.
The ADN-prepared nurses can be named a technical professional because a nurse is focused on the clinical experience with assessments and needles and tube manipulations. Thus, the nursing care difference between the BSN- and ADN-prepared nurse is based on the competencies they got to analyze data and implement best practices.
Significance of Evidence‐based Practice in Nursing
Evidence-based practice (EBP) to nursing care is highly significant when it comes to finding proper solutions to patients’ situations. By applying evidence-based practice, nurses ensure that the way of treatment that was chosen is based on objective data and its analysis. EBP includes several steps of identification and assessment of the evidence that helps nurses to justify their decisions and changes related to effective management and care practice.
The academic preparation of the RN‐BSN nurse supports EBP application by giving students care strategies that are proved to be active and encouraging them to choose methods and interventions that are validated by scientific communities (“Why Is Evidence-Based Practice,” 2018). The education of nurses that involves evidence-based practice ensures that a patient will get researched and tested treatment practices that adhere to ethical and scientific principles.
Nurses’ Communication in Interdisciplinary Teams
Communication with interdisciplinary teams helps nurses to elaborate a multidisciplinary approach to a patient’s situation and unite professionals together to create an integrated treatment plan. It might also be said that for the patient, communication between nurses and professionals helps to get coherent information on the developed treatment when a nurse can explain consecutive steps of the procedure, and the same can do other members of a multidisciplinary team. Scholars suggest that nursing communication enhances collaboration within interdisciplinary teams, improves safety, efficiency, and encourages teamwork satisfaction (Gausvik, 2015). The cooperation of specialists ensures that all methods, interventions, and assessments fit the general plan that is tailored and aimed to address the disease of a patient efficiently.
Conclusion
To conclude, one might say that nurses’ education, skills, and competencies are crucial for patients’ well-being and recovery. The scope of nurses’ practice is changing and expanding as it is expected that nurses will lead the research and development of treatment methods based on objective and broad data collected. It is expected that cooperation with other specialists in the field of medical care will evolve in the direction of improving leadership and innovation competencies that will help patients to get better faster.
References
ADN and BSN Nursing Pathways: What are the Differences? (n.d.).
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: Scope and Standards of.
Bravo K., Cochran G., & Barrett R. (2016). Nursing Strategies to Increase Medication Safety in Inpatient Settings. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 31(4), 335–341. Web.
Gausvik C., Lautar, 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. Web.
Papandrea, D. (2016). Nursing is in Transformation, and That’s Good for Nurses.
Practice (3rd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: ANA.
Why is Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing so Important? (2018).