Educational Preparation

As people’s life expectancy increases, the nursing field needs to keep pace with the rapid changes. There’s increased needs for nurses in many different field as well such as nursing home, hospitals, ambulatory cares, palliative care, and hospices. Therefore, an expectation of a role as a nurse has been rise. Nursing skills and knowledge cannot remain limited, but need to utilize in more various setting. In order to provide better care in various nursing field, continuing education is essential. For example, as population and their lifespan increases there’s also new diseases and new treatment has been developed. A competence nurse must embrace old and new skills and thorough knowledge to achieve best quality of care and optimum patient’s overall outcome. The quality of patient care heavily depends on nurses’ level of education. One research proves that nurses who received higher level of education showed lower mortality rate, less medical errors, and higher patient satisfaction. This outcome is related to higher education which prepared nurses to handle various circumstances with appropriate answers. Nurses are people who spend most of time with ill individuals at the bed side. Nursing education will provide new demanding roles of nurses’ requirement such as seeing the patient as a whole, providing appropriate response to patient’s condition, and integrating knowledge and skills accordingly.

With an ever-increasing body of knowledge in the field of nursing, more education is being required to enter the field of nursing. Many healthcare institutions are raising the educational requirements in order to become employed or maintain employment in their facilities. Healthcare organizations are transitioning to hiring registered nurses (RN) who have a higher level of education, such as, a graduate from a Baccalaureate Degree Nursing (BSN) program. The goal of these institutions is to have nurses with a broader array of skills that can meet the growing demands of our patient population. BSN prepared nurses are recognized for their well-rounded skills in critical thinking, management, case management and health promotion versus Associate Degree nurses (ADN)/Diploma nurses that focus on direct patient care.

The nurse would identify if this was a community acquired problem, a lack of knowledge of disease process and prevention, or perhaps the result of poor socioeconomic standards. The nurse would then focus on educating the patient on proper health promotion and disease prevention so that he/she could help to prevent the patient from returning after discharge. The BSN’s advanced education that focuses on community health, advanced assessment skills, health promotion, and evidence based practice, gives the nurse the skills and confidence needed to treat the whole person in and out of the hospital setting These skills allow them to be leaders in the community and amongst their peers.

Furthermore according to American Association of College of Nursing, “the baccalaureate degree is designed to prepare nurses for work within the growing and changing health care environment. With nurses taking more active role in the health care, they are expected to develop critical thinking and communication skills in addition to receiving training in clinics and hospital”(American Association of College of Nursing) .

Differences regarding competencies of an associate degree nurse and a baccalaureate degree nurse have long been discussed and argued. It has been argued that the associate degree nurse is less competent than the baccalaureate degree nurse. The difference among these competencies has also led to the discussion and concern regarding negative outcomes when it comes to quality patient care. “Quality patient care hinges on having a well educated work force” (Rosseter, 2011) With further research I have found that there are many differences in the competencies and educational preparation between these nurses. I was not aware of these differences until I further researched this topic. In the Journal of Nursing Education June 2006 issue it states

each nurse develops. The associate degree in nursing (ADN) study focused on patient care skills

Education has a strong outcome on everyone, and nursing is a profession that makes sure that everyone that is being called a nurse goes through the best kind of education that is available. Nursing helps to nurture human by providing humane services for all. There are different levels of education in nursing; an associate’s degree, a baccalaureate degree, master’s degree and so on. So it is very important to understand the differences between all these degrees since each certified nursing program carries educational and professional requirements that are expected to be carried out. The following paragraphs are going to explain the differences in competencies between nurses that are

Significantly more medication errors and procedural violations are committed by nurses prepared at the associate degree and diploma levels than at the baccalaureate level” ("Ensuring An Educated," 2005, p. 12). The BSN nurse has stronger communication skills, problem solving skills and is more likely to use evidenced-base practice in their daily nursing routine. Being more alert a doctor. Having strong skills can help prevent a devastating accident by knowing when to question a doctors order, and looking for signs and symptoms of patient decomposition. A BSN nurse can make nursing diagnoses and evaluate nursing interventions better than a nurse who holds an ADN.

The purpose of this educational preparation is to discuss the differences in competencies between nurses prepared at the associate-degree level versus the baccalaureate-degree level nursing. Nursing is a dynamic and complex discipline that needs increase knowledge and skills. Now days a nurse is expecting to make critical decision sometimes than following doctors’ orders, which requires more education. There are some differences between associate-degree level nurse and baccalaureate nurse even though they carry the same RN position in

The aim of this paper is to look into the differences in competences between nurses prepared at the associate-degree level versus nurses prepared at the baccalaureate-degree level. Nursing is an occupation that requiring special education that has been found of great importance and respect over many centuries and it is an immense, appreciating and recognizing field. By choosing nursing, it gives a gratifying career path for both BSN and ADN trained nurses. “Associate degree nursing programs are designed to be 2 years in length and consist of a balance between general education and clinical nursing courses, all of which

There is an increasingly high demand for students going into nursing careers in our society, but there are also varying educational pathways for these students to get into these careers. Are the three educational pathways (Diploma, Associate Degree, and Baccalaureate Degree) preparing prospective nurses to be at the same competency level after schooling? Advancement in education has become an increasingly important topic amongst health care organizations. Educational preparation can indeed affect nursing care and the decision making of nurses. In this paper, an analysis of nursing history and the degree programs themselves will provide evidence of an increased level of patient care by BSN nurses vs. ADN nurses.

Nursing is one of the most popular professions in healthcare. To become a professional nurse, one must acquire certain level of education, whether it is at associate or baccalaureate degree level. Once becoming a nurse a number of professional standards must be maintained to stay abreast with the profession. In that respect, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its 2010 report had suggested many recommendations focusing on the future of nursing. The aim of the report is to put forth recommendations that allow nurses to “(1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide opportunities for nurses to assume leadership positions and to serve as full

The professional nurse who possesses baccalaureate degree has attained academic and professional development consequential of further education and knowledge by attending school in depth and hands on knowledge in science of nursing. She or he has developed purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and interference in planning, applying, and evaluating for safer better daily patient care. Patients rely on professional nurses for better judgment and their advices everyday and baccalaureate nurses have competencies and cognitive skills to fulfill patients needs and trust. She or he is well informed of recent evidence based practices based on which she can give trustful reasons for steps of care. She or he is open-minded because of being educated about multicultural and language, ethics, sociology, communication, and adversity of human nature and is flexible to listen and help. Based on critical thinking and leadership management skills learned in baccalaureate degree professional nurse is willing to reconsider and clear issues in complex matters, implementing change, and collaborate with health care team to build positive work environment and outcome. She or he is fair minded in evaluation of

Patient outcome are the principal for continuing education. The level of educational preparation required by a baccalaureate-degree nurse allows for more equip decision-making in approach to patient care situations. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,

In the United States, education is unavoidable; it is against the law to not be educated. Teachers robotically teach the essentials just for their students to pass the many standardized tests the government creates in order to have a standard to hold students to. The problem this creates is how the student will provide for himself when they are through with their standard thirteen year education. American students are left to their own devices when preparing for tests that colleges look at when accepting them. The standard American education system is not getting students very far and no where near what top colleges are looking for on these tests. The European education system prepares students better for college and real world workplace experiences than the American education system.