Master’s Prepared Nurse Interview
Stephanie Bakker
Grand Canyon University: NUR 502
October 15, 2014
Master’s Prepared Nurse Interview
Introduction
Due to the demands of an evolving health care system and an emphasis in health and wellness, Master’s prepared nurses are in demand. What does a Master’s prepared nurse entails? According to the American Association College of Nursing, Master’s prepared nurses obtain a higher level of learning as well as key competencies and skills. The ultimate goal is to achieve positive patient outcomes resulting in an overall improved health care system. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on a Master’s prepared nurse conducted through an interview. My interviewee has obtained an MSN
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Her passion grew more as the years went by. The next step that followed was an advanced nursing degree.
Graduate Education
My interviewee obtained her Master’s in Informatics at the University of Phoenix in 2013. Transitioning into the Master’s program was seamless since this school was where she obtained her BSN. The online route was most efficient and that is the route she pursued. The University of Phoenix Master of Science in nursing degree program is accredited by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (University of Phoenix, 2014). The goal of this program is to equip nurses to function in leadership roles in a variety of settings. Additionally, nursing theories and evidence-based practices are fundamental guidelines in this program that will help shape the future of nursing thus impacting the health care system (University of Phoenix, 2014). More specifically, the informatics program afford students to gain knowledge in data management and information technology in regard to the health care setting (University of Phoenix, 2014).
According to my interviewee, the Master’s graduate program as compared to the undergraduate program was more challenging but yet rewarding. This was attributed to the fact that she had a strong passion for informatics and wanted to obtain a higher level of education.
Present Position
As a Nurse Informaticist, the interviewee felt that she has been
Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, share with us the academic, extracurricular, or research opportunities you would take advantage of as a student. If applicable, provide details of any circumstance that could have had an impact on your academic performance and/or extracurricular involvement.
The objective of this synthesis paper is to present my readers what I have achieved during my graduate program at American Sentinel University (ASU). It assimilates all my course work, clinical experience, and nursing practice during this time, which presents a complete picture of how I accomplished my Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) consequences and Nursing Informatics track competencies. This paper will pinpoint my personal philosophy of nursing informatics and give a concise summary of my professional achievements, competencies developed during program of studies, and goals for life-long learning as an informatics nurse. The occupation of nursing is considered as both an art and science. Development of nursing comprises evidence‐based practice and fast integration of advances in technology. It is a field that has extensive uses in healthcare, as well as specialty practice. Educational curriculum and degree/certification are choices for nurses to pursue in this exciting field.
Nursing informatics really gained momentum in the 1980’s. The first national conference on computer technology and nursing was held (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). Scholarships and the first educational courses on Nursing Informatics were introduced into the nursing programs at Boston College, University of New York and University of Utah (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). The growing record of accomplishment allowed nurses to move into managerial roles (Edwards, H. 2011). By the mid ‘80’s, nearly three decades after Nurse Werley pushed for minimum data sets, was the idea finally embraced by nurse professionals (Ozbolt, J.G., Saba, V.K. 2008). Four specific elements of the minimum data set became a standard for nursing care: nursing diagnosis, nursing intervention, nursing outcome and the
J.W. first began her nursing career after she graduated from Truman State University with a BSN. She then went back to school at Webster University and graduated with a master’s degree in both health services management and nursing. After working in clinical positions for many years, she decided to return to school one last time to obtain her EED in higher education leadership from Lindenwood University. After her graduation from Truman and Webster, she began working on a medical surgical floor and mostly conducted surgeries on hips and shoulders. She did that for about nine months, but decided to switch since her work was very physically demanding. She stated, “Then I went to a different town and I worked in ICU where I was a head nurse in the step down unit and dialysis unit for a while” (Personal communication, 10/19/2017). She then
The nursing field is caring, dependable, and effective. None of which could be accomplished without teamwork, collaboration and informatics. I believe these concepts are fundamental in the nursing profession. Nurses must work with other healthcare staff, the patients and their families to provide patient-centered and quality care. The use of informatics enhance both the quality of care the clients receive and the teamwork and collaboration aspect of nursing. No one nurse can do it all on their own. Nursing requires the use of teamwork and new technology.
In order to practice as a nurse informatics or NI specialist, one must know and understand the standard to which he or she is held. The purpose and function of scopes and standards of practice for nursing informatics is to provide an overview of the specialty, assist future specialists understand their scope of practice, and practice at a competent level to guide and support nursing care. The scopes and standards of practice further provides an insight into the foundation of clinical decision making processes and cognitive concepts as the nurse moves data to wisdom in the clinical setting. As a NI specialist, the informatics nurse follows the concepts, scopes and standards of practice to guide and define their profession. This paper will further discuss the principles that guides nurse informatics specialist, the scope and standards of practice, professional performance, functional areas for nurse informatics, competencies, evolution, progress, and the future the specialty.
Transitioning from nursing school to working in a hospital setting can be a challenging time for a new graduate. Due to the nursing shortage, new graduate nurses are being hired with little to no experience. This is overwhelming for new nurses, especially when they are not getting adequate support or training from the hospital. The amount of stress, pressure, and lack of training is leading to a high turnover rate for new graduate nurses. With patient acuity on the rise, new graduate nurses that are filling these vacancies in the hospitals, need to be competent nurses to provide proper and safe care to the patients.
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.
Informatics is a specialty in the nursing field that is combined with certain science. As stated by ANA (2008) “nursing informatics (NI) is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice” (p. 65). ANA further focus on the functional areas rather than the role that guides the scope of practice within NI. These functional areas include: “administration, leadership, and management; analysis; compliance and integrity management; consultation; coordination, facilitation, and integration; development; educational and professional development; research and evaluation; policy development and advocacy; and telehealth” (CCN, 2015, para. 1). With these functional areas in mind, a nursing informatics specialist can perform proficiently, depending on the specific task. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the result of an interview with a NI specialist and analyze the differences and similarities between the interviewee’s functional areas with that of scholarly ones.
The practice experience in this class will provide me with a better understanding of the advanced practice nurses role in research and promoting evidenced-based practice (American Sentinel University, 2016). Areas of competency improved by this experience are foundations of nursing informatics, specifically wisdom with evidenced-based practice, nursing informatics practice, in particular, applying current research findings.
Many job titles or description can be associated with the position of an informatics nurse specialist (INS). According to Sweeney (2010), there is no single job description for an individual with a graduate level of education in the informatics field. Furthermore, the author stated that job titles and/or description of an INS varies with each employing organization. However, expected activities should include responsibilities such as administration, project management, software development, analysis, designing and implementing educational programs, consulting, program evaluation and research, and management and leadership (Sweeney, 2010). This implies that an INS should have the skills and knowledge to meaningfully use current technologies to convey and coordinate care across various settings. The purpose of this paper is to summarize three job descriptions, analyze these job descriptions, and make recommendations for improving one of the summarized job description to meet current employer recruitment strategies.
With the rapid growth in the implementation and use of electronic medical records, there is an increase in how we define the role of nurses and other team member’s (Deese & Stien, 2004). Along with providing optimal care, nurses are also responsible for interpreting and accurately documenting large amounts of information. According to, (Ericksen, 2009) nursing informatics is defined as the integration of nursing, its information, and information management with information processing and communication technology to support the health of people worldwide. In this
“Throughout the last decade, policymakers and practice leaders have recognized that education makes a difference” (Impact of Education, n.d.). Hospitals are also trending towards preferred hiring of bachelors prepared nurses for their workforce. Even national organizations are jumping on the bandwagon requiring “all nurse managers and nurse leaders to hold a baccalaureate or graduate degree in nursing by 2013” (Impact of Education, n.d.), likewise the Institute of Medicine has also recommended that all hospitals have at least 80% of their nursing staff with a BSN or higher by the year 2020 (Impact of Education, n.d.).
The interview consisted of a nurse who was a graduate of Grand Canyon University with a Master’s degree in nursing education. She is a clinical educator at Deer Valley- campus and is enrolled as a post-graduate for leadership innovation. The person was chosen because of her advanced skills and education insight at the Master’s level of nursing. In this interview, the information provided will contain personal achievements and advice with the crucial competencies needed for success and growth, and words of wisdom for success at the Master’s level in nursing.
An interview was conducted with the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at an acute care facility. This discussion revolved around the following: her style of management, style of communication, decision-making skills, technical skills and delegating skills. Before sharing specific responses to each of these, the CNO wanted to clarify that because she was new to the organization and following someone who had been in this position for over 20 years, during the first year and transition phase, there were certain situations in which she was consciously adjusting her leadership style to fit the culture of the organization. She strongly felt over time the staff would adjust and become more familiar with her natural style of leadership and