The Health Care Team Who Is Responsible For Providing Basic Nursing Care

By carrying out an assessment nurses can identify the causes of problems that require medical involvement. Nettina (2006)

It is no secret that communication is key when providing direct patient care in a skilled nursing facility. However, there is a noticeable lapse in the communication between the care team when providing care to the individual or groups of individuals. Two main parts of any care team are the registered nurse and the certified nursing assistant, as these are the two people whom have the most direct and impactful roles with residents in a skilled facility. The Registered Nurse and the Certified Nursing Assistant play similar roles in providing patient care, but have different roles in its entirety. The role of the Registered Nurse (RN) is defined as having the competency and skill to provide direct and indirect health care to individuals, their families, and communities around them. Services are also provided designed to give out medications, to promote comfort or healing, promote healing, and to also provide the dignity of their patients and patient’s families (American College of Rheumatology, 2015).

In a hospital setting, there are nurses of various levels of education starting from a Licensed Practical Nurse all the way to a Nurse Practitioner. Although there is a clearly defined difference in education, knowledge, and skill sets between an LPN, RN, and NP, the

Assessment of a patient is a big process of decision making, it is about the collection of information which will contribute to an overall judgement of a person and the illness they may have. Lloyd (2010) states that assessment is one of the first steps which is needed to be done in the nursing process, it is a building block for a relationship and an ongoing process which lets health professionals gather the correct information to help them understand the problems and needs that the patient is going through. Most of the nursing assessment which are in use today will all have very similar aims. The difference is that how the assessment’s are carried out is where the differences come from.

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.

Nursing is about providing the best possible holistic care for the patient and family. At the same time there’s an imbalance of patient care regarding education and knowledge being provided by nurses. As a nurse I believe we all owe it to ourselves, the profession, and the patient to provide the best possible care. According to American Nurses Association (ANA) online article “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.” In order to better achieve the nursing ideals of the American Nurses Association we must improve patient care by requiring hospital nurses to become BSN nurses.

Under the scope of practice of an RN from the New York State Education Department, an RN can diagnose and treat human responses to actual or potential health problems. To be able to perform those tasks a care plan must be made for each client. An RN manages the health care services such as observing and assessing the health status of clients and implementing/assessing nursing care. This all falls under the initial assessment of a client, which is within the scope of an RN. An RN uses information gathered as part of client assessment, they then have the capacity to assign client care to other members of the nursing team, RNs and LPNs, and assign tasks to other care providers such as nurse’s assistant. Even though there are parts of the nursing process that may be delegated to qualified personnel, the initial assessment is the RNs responsibility. The initial assessment is the basis for safe and appropriate client care, which makes it so vital and why not just anyone can perform it. RNs hold the overall responsibility in the nursing

The domains of nursing practice and the core competencies of the APRN role were explored. The four domains in relation to competencies were identified as clinical practice, nursing profession, system levels, and health policy. The competencies define APRN role and distinguish it from the specialty RN practice role. Direct clinical practice was acknowledged as the most fundamental of the seven competencies for every APN. As an NP it is vital to develop the clinical expertise in order to perform competent and safe care. I plan to achieve this by completing my program and practicum as an NP student as required by South University

Provision 4. Nurses should practice within the scope of practice and consult specialist as soon as needed and the nurse must collaborate care of the patient they care for

West Virginia’s Scope of Practice (2015) defines the nurse’s scope of practice in much the same manner, as the American Nurses Association. However, the West Virginia Nurse Practice Act provides three sections with multiple questions to ask yourself. The three sections are “Define the Issue,” Review Existing Laws, Policies, and Standards of Nursing Practice,” and “Making a Decision” (WV RN Board, 2015). The final statement under the section entitled “Making a Decision” states nurses must ask themselves, how prepared he or she is to accept the consequences of their actions (WV RN Board, 2015).

The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines the Scope of Nursing Practice as, “the description of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of nursing practice that addresses the range of nursing practice activities common to

The purpose of this posting is to discuss the nursing scope of practice as defined by the American Nurses Association. I will also be reviewing the nurse practice act as established by the state of Ohio. In this posting I will provide a discussion on my application of the nursing scope of practice. The American Nurses Association is an professional organization that represents registered nurses by setting standards of nursing practice, promoting nurses rights, and lobbying for issues surrounding nurses in the United States (American Nurses Association, 2010). The American Nurses Association define scope of practice as a set of ideals as to who, in this country, can act as a nurse and how they should act.

The role that nurse practitioner (NP) plays within the increasing complex health care system is a constant changing role with the Consensus Model and the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The scope of the nurse practitioner (NP) includes the care of the young, the old, the sick and the well. The educational needs of a nurse practitioner vary greatly from that of a Registered Nurse (RN), in the amount of education as well as the focus of the education. NPs provide coordinated primary care with the use of comprehensive health histories and physical examinations, diagnosing and treating acute and chronic illnesses, the management of medications and therapies, ordering and interpreting tests results, and educating and

Nurses are known as the heart of health care. Being a nurse is a demanding job that requires commitment, but does not lack rewards. A fact stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nurses claims that “Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation 's long-term care” (“Nursing Fact Sheet”). With many roles throughout the healthcare system as a whole, nurses are a large, very important role that interacts with every other part of the health care system. They have great qualities that not everyone has. They are highly compassionate, caring, professional, diligent and understanding individuals. A nurse experiences people at their worst and still care for patients in a way that no one else would. All these honest points prove that nurses are the most important members of the health care system because, nurses spend the most time with patients, nurses are the managers of patient care; they are teachers and are great with conflict resolution.

In conclusion, there are several standard of practices set forth for both LVN and RN. These standards define the similarities and differences for each scope of practice. In-depth understanding of these standards explains why and what are the variations between an LVN and RN. Two of these standards are acquiring education and assessment skills. An LVNs education introduces elemental skills and their assessment skills are limited to basic data collection while an RN requires an advanced education and acquires comprehensive assessment skills. Regardless of what an LVN has obtained through education and experience, there is more intensive knowledge, analytical and critical thinking that an LVN must attain to become a successful RN.