SN-Student Nurse Objectives

As a nurse, we have the responsibility of providing safe and patient-centered care to the community. Patients are more than numbers, and as nurses we must treat them as individuals who need attention and personalized care. While caring for patients, we must use

Nursing is a dynamic profession and life long learning is essential for nurses to stay current with the increased complexity of the healthcare needs of today and into the future. In other words, the needs of our patients are changing, as we must change in order to be prepared to better serve that need.

You, as a staff member have to realize that each patient is an individual. Each patient has unique healthcare needs. There are

Patricia Benner’s theory "From Novice to Expert" is based on the concept of nurses developing skills and understanding of the patients care overtime which comes from their continued efforts towards trying to achieve strong education and personal experience. The theory explains the five levels of nursing experience: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. Starting from novice where they don’t have any experience and simply follow instructions, nurses finally reach the expert level transitioning through different levels where they rely on their experience rather than principles or guidelines to connect situations and determine actions. Their performance is fluid, flexible, and highly-proficient at this level. Benner stresses on skills through experience as a prerequisite for becoming an expert nurse (Nursing world, 2013).

Advanced Beginner is the next stage in Patricia Benner’s model. Nurses considered to be in this stage have had enough real life experiences to note different aspects of a situation. They base their assessments of patients on previous experiences similar to the current patient they are providing care for (Benner, 1984). Nurses performing at this

The newly qualified nurse is in an especially good position to provide excellent patient care. Having only recently left education and training, the most up-to-date evidence regarding best practice should be fresh in the newly qualified nurse’s mind. However, what knowledge the newly qualified nurse possesses in theory, they lack in experience.

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.

Nursing can be a demanding career, but the benefits far much outweigh the challenges. Most importantly, it’s the rewards it offers by allowing an opportunity to make a difference in another person’s life through the provision of care when they need it. Just as Patricia Benner theorized in her book “Novice to Expert,” nursing encompasses both educational knowledge and extensive clinical experience acquired throughout one’s career. This far, I continue to acquire knowledge and clinical knowhow which will promote proper and efficient care to patients. Since I began practicing one year ago in a long-term healthcare facility, I have interacted with patients, families, physicians and other members of the healthcare team to coordinate patient’s care which has enabled me to gain confidence in myself. While I cannot deny that it was difficult to transition from a student to a licensed nurse, I learnt to overcome these challenges and focus on my strengths. Practicing as an LPN has provided a platform to learn and gain experience even though the duties and responsibilities are limited by the scope of practice.

In todays healthcare system, nurse’s will not only be required to proficiently with patients and other health care professionals, but they also need to have a skills as a provider, manager, and coordinator of care. According to the AACN, “Unlike graduates of diploma or associate-degree nursing programs, the nurse with a baccalaureate degree is prepared to practice in all health care settings - critical care, outpatient care, public health, and mental health” (“The Baccalaureate Degree”, 2000). Because of this provision, the baccalaureate nurses are well- conditioned to render care in individual families, outpatient centers, and neighborhood clinics where need is growing as hospitals are focusing on acute care. Now health care is going beyond the hospitals to more primary care and preventative services all throughout the community. In hospitals around the nation, baccalaureate prepared nurses are being practiced in peculiar ways that acknowledge their different educational preparations and competency from other entry-level RNs. To show these distinctions, nurses are not only delivering more complex aspects of daily care and patient education, but can also plan and organize a complete strategy of nursing care for the length of the patient’s stay in the facility. This is including pre-admission to post-discharge. AACN shows that the associate-degree nurse

A student, in the practical nursing program, giving the best care by using and applying skills, principles, and guidelines is the main concern. Seventy-five percent of patients in hospital are elderly simply because of their fragility and decrease in their immune system which would cause mature adult to develop a health problem. Every week is about meeting new patients with different type of diagnosis so skills can develop and one of the patients has caught a particular attention.

The period I have spent here in Emory nursing school has been gratifying, challenging, demanding, and astounding. Coming into the program, I had many fixed ideas about nursing, and was not aware of all the things nurses do on a day -to- day basis. At the present time, I have come to see the extensive nursing scope of practice and the skills required to become a professional nurse; I come to really appreciate this occupation. I did my Role Transition rotation at Care Initiative Unit (CIU) in Emory University Hospital (EUH). The unit has 7 stretchers and 6 recliners and the patients being cared for are generally patients from ED, Emory Clinic, ENDO, Vascular, and Cardiac specialties. The skills utilized by the nurses to care for these patients, and their specific pre-operative needs are very unique. I encountered many experiences during my Role Transition to help me evolve into a professional nurse when I am on my own. I will elaborate on this transitional passage through exploring the unit that I worked in, and my own personal leadership characteristics as well as defining methods that I can use to incorporate Evident Base Practice and provide quality nursing care.

With advancements in healthcare, come more responsibilities for nurses. A big area where nurses advance is in their skill level. As new nurses we were timid in the way we approached our patients and weary of our interventions. Our skills and experience have grown since then. As the years have passed, we have grown in our practice.

Nursing theories were developed to help professional nurses improve patient management. It helps promotes further knowledge, fosters critical thinking, and helps guide the direction for future nursing. There are numerous theories to choose from in nursing practice and they all give a variety of focal points. The systems theory of Betty Neumann and adaptation theory of Callista Roy are discussed, comparing both theories to all five components of the nursing process.

Did you know that there is 126, 000 nursing positions unfilled in hospitals across the country ( Jackson, 2006) and the average nurse is 46 years of age? ( Alexandra, 2006). The public needs to see that the shortage of nurses is a major issue that is only going to get worse if something is not done about it. It has been shown that since the beginning of the shortage there has been an increase in mortality rates due to a increase of poor patient care. If this nursing shortage continues it will only decrease the quality of care the public receives, increase costs, make hospital stays longer, and health care less effective and efficient. Teamwork, good communication, critical thinking, and problem solving are all things

In today’s world, it is essential to incorporate nursing theory into practice. Patricia Benner, through her work, “has provided essential understanding of how knowledge and skills are acquired and directly applied to nursing practice, education, research and administration” (Altmann, 2007, p. 114). According to Benner’s model of skill acquisition, “the nurse passes through five stages of career development, novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert” (English, 1993, p.387). Specific patterns of behavior, thinking, and performance is present in each stage. The most experience is associated with the expert nurse and the least experience is possessed by the novice nurse (Benjamin, 2007). This model is based on ascending level of proficiency and the key concepts of this model are: competence, skill attainment, experience, clinical knowledge and practical knowledge