Entry Level Nurses in Hospitals Need Bachelor’s Degrees in Nursing Nursing as a profession has undergone many changes with increased clinical research and scientific advancements. Nursing started out by promoting hygiene and focusing on patient comforts. While these initial components of nursing are still important to practice, the nurses today are required to have much more knowledge in body functions, pathologies and interventions. With increased scientific knowledge came increased demands for nurses to care for the sick and even more so now with an increasing aging population. Now there are specific educational requirements people must complete in order to enter into the workforce as a nurse (SHOULD ENTRY INTO NURSING BE BSN?). Currently, the three entry level positions as a nurse include Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN), and Bachelors of Science in nursing (BSN). While LPN’s are rarely encountered in the hospital setting as healthcare providers there is a much bigger ongoing debate on whether ADN prepared nurses or BSN prepared nurses are better suited to enter the hospital workforce. This paper will focus on promoting future nursing students to obtain a BSN instead of ADN due to increased research findings that nurses with BSN degrees have better patient outcomes, and better career outlooks. One of the debates that evolved from the push for bachelor prepared nurses at the entry level involves patient outcomes in a critical setting. According to (EDUCATION LEVEL) their research has found that hospitals with more BSN nurses have lower levels of surgical patient mortalities. Hospitals that have 10% more nurses with bachelors degrees had a decrease of 5% in patient mortalities 30 days after a... ... middle of paper ... ...Research has shown nurses who have Bachelors degrees have better patient outcomes with decreased mortality rates and failure to rescue outcomes and they also have better career outlooks. It is for these reasons and the future of nursing as a profession that the field cannot afford another sixty years to decide how it wants to be viewed. The hospital system has demanded vastly superior and complex work by nurses then many years ago and it would be a disservice to nurses everywhere to hold the field back from professional status. It is for these reasons that nursing must focus on BSN as the entry level education level for nurses and work hard to bring LPNs and ADNs up to par with the education level of their BSN counterparts. Nurses even at the Bachelors level should be encouraged to continue higher education whether it is in clinical practice or clinical research.
Nursing, as a crucial part of the health care system, keeps evolving while dealing with an increasingly complex clinical situation that involves quality of patient care. Therefore, to successfully handle these scenarios, nursing needs to become more advanced, clinically and academically. A DNP degree is needed in this situation because according to Dunbar- Jacob, Navito & Khalil (2013), a DNP degree is considered to have more impact on nursing than a Master’s or Bachelor’s degree due to the advanced clinical education a DNP provides (p. 425). Hence, the DNP degree has an enormous impact in nursing practice especially in terms of improving clinical care, promoting leadership roles, and improving educational status.
Many may argue that one is just as capable as the other in offering patient care. But recent studies conducted by Aiken et al. have shown nurses educated at higher levels are better prepared for delivering optimal patient care. One of the key eliminates is evidence-based practice. BSN programs provide the knowledge and preparation needed for evidence-based prac...
The question of whether or not nurses should be required to obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN) to work has become a very big and controversial topic. As with any great debate, this situation comes with many advantages and disadvantages. Although some statistics may lead you to believe that the good outweighs the bad, when making the decision of whether or not obtaining a BSN should be mandated there are a great deal of barriers that have to be taken into consideration. Obtaining a BSN requires more schooling and for those who are already nurses, it means having to go back to school. This requires a lot of money, time, and motivation to balance family work and school. Nurses should not be required to obtain a BSN to work.
In fact, Researchers had shown the results of outcomes having different degrees of level. According to AACN, Today 61% Nurses in the United States have a BSN degree who works in health settings. In fact, BSN nurses reduce death rate mortality, and readmission rate by using clinical practice knowledge (AACN) . Having advance level of knowledge involves nurses to manage the patient level of care and monitor for progress. American Organization of Nurses Executives states that nurses who have a higher education level promotes safe nursing care and improves patient safety. Higher educational nurses prepare herself for clinical challenging and complex roles (AACN, page 1). They develop more ideas, better intervention, and focus more on clinical
The modern nurse has much to be thankful for because of some of the early pioneers of nursing, such as Florence Nightingale and Jensey Snow. However, the scope and influence of professional nursing, as well as the individual nurse, has seen more exponential growth and change in North America since the establishment of the first professional organization for nursing, the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, which in 1911 came to be known as the American Nurses Association.
Research has also shown that when you have a shortage of registered nurses at the baccalaureate and higher degree it is endangering the safety of the patient. Comparatively in a study done at the University of Pennsylvania they found that patients experienced a significantly lower death and failure to re...
...uickly changing medical technology and environment. The bickering and infighting amongst nurses has to come to a stop if the profession is to move forward alongside the other medical professions. It is too late to take nursing back to the point of basic care of the 19th century now fulfilled by certified nurse aides. A nurse is the first and last person many people will ever see. They provide complex care, recognize symptoms and changes when the ever shrinking physician pool is not available, advocate for patient and families, and care deeply for their patients recovery. In this paper the author used past nursing history, current medical demands and advancements, and clinical patient outcomes to argue that the minimum education for a nurse should be a Baccalaureate degree in order to meet the Institute of Medicines goal of 80% of nurses should have BSNs by 2020.
Collaborative agreements or other physician signature for Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners in the State of Texas.
In 1965, the American Nurses Association shared its vision for the future of nursing education. A primary goal in its message was that a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) becomes the minimum requirement for entry into nursing practice (Nelson, 2002). Fifty years later, debates on this issue continue. In its report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change and Advancing Healthcare, the Institute of Medicine shared its recommendation that 80% of nurses possess a bachelor’s degree by the year 2020. A significant number of health care facilities have adopted the practice of hiring nurses with BSN over those with two year Associate’s Degree of Nursing (ADN) or a three-year hospital based diploma program. Stakeholders in the Registered Nurse (RN)
Since we have determined the pro’s and con’s for nursing staff regards to bachelor degrees, we will now explore the hospitals’ pro’s and con’s to hiring a nurse with a bachelor’s degree. The American Medical Association printed an article describing the relationship between nurses with bachelor degrees or higher in regards to surgical mortality rates and failure to rescue. The study was designed to test whether hospitals with high proportions of direct-care nurses educated at the BSN level or above have lower risk- adjusted mortality rates and lower rates of failure to rescue. The study also tested whether the educational backgrounds of hospital nurses are a predictor of patient mortality beyond factors as nurse staffing and experience. The results showed for each 10% increase in the proportion of nurses with higher degrees decreased the risk of mortality and of failure to rescue by 5%, after controlling for patient and hospital characteristics. The study reported if the proportion of BSN nurses in all hospitals was 60% rather than 20%, 3.6 fewer deaths per 1000 patients and 14.2 fewer deaths per 1000 patients with complications would be expected. Nurse’s years of experience was not found to be a significant predictor of mortality or failure to rescue in the
The decision to enroll in graduate school came after considerable time and soul searching. While contemplating the decision to return to school I thought about life, school and work. I realized that my experience in these areas have prepared me for the challenge and I am going to succeed.
Nursing has always been a key career in the health care system. Although it is not often focused on in media and stories surrounding health care, nursing is a career of great importance. If any patient was asked about their experience at a hospital or a care center, many will mention the capability and care that they received from the nurses. The health care system could not function efficiently, if at all, if nurses were not present to perform their part. Nurses are more than just physicians support staff. Of interest in this paper is why people choose to study nursing in university or college. From students just graduating high school to mature student who have prior degrees or education, nursing is a popular choice as a path to study
The BSN program helps the nurses in many ways including utilizing the process to the full scale and it will encourage nurses to use their skills like educating the patient as we’ll as creating new nurses. Because of the new health care reform, the BSN program will also aid in filling the gap from the influx of patients. The baccalaureate degrees and BSN program helps prepare students for the significant part they are going to play in reinforcing the new healthcare reform. At present, I utilize and develop nursing care plans in the nursing process, even though it needs some corrections due to the nature of my work. The highest standards of nursing can only be achieved through better research and advanced training.
Higher education is a highly encouraged aspect in today’s society. The higher degree a person has, the more knowledgeable they are said to be. The education and degree that a registered nurse acquires affects not only the nurse, but their patients and their fellow coworkers as well. It is crucial to consider how different education levels of registered nurses will impact the patients, the nurse, the medical field, and the view on nurses as a whole. A nurse with a BSN rather than an ADN could perhaps provide more knowledgeable care that is consistent with the advances of today’s society. With our society and technologies always advancing and changing, it is safe to assume that a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree should be the required level of education for a registered nurse.
The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of nursing staffing ratios in the healthcare industry. This has always been a primary issue, and it continues to grow as the population rate increases throughout the years. According to Shakelle (2013), in an early study of 232,432 surgical discharges from several Pennsylvania hospitals, 4,535 patients (2%) died within 30 days of hospitalization. Shakelle (2014) also noted that during the study, there was a difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient to nurse ratios which translates to approximately 1000 deaths for a group of that size. This issue can be significantly affected in a positive manner by increasing the nurse to patient ratio, which would result in more nurses to spread the work load of the nurses more evenly to provide better coverage and in turn result in better care of patients and a decrease in the mortality rates.