Use Of Competency Of A Nurse

In the article “What Do Nurses Really Do?”, Suzanne Gordon explores what nurses truly do. She concludes that nurses “save lives, prevent complications, prevent suffering, and save money” (Gordon 2006). Nurses provide care for their patients in the physical and emotional sense. Emotionally caring for a patient and being sensitive to his or her needs result from interacting with patients while performing the skills and using the knowledge that nurses learned in school. Nurses grow in their skills, knowledge, and attitudes through practice. Quality and safety education for nursing incorporates competencies that all nurses must use in their practice. These nursing competencies include evidence-based nursing practice, quality improvement, safety, teamwork and collaboration, patient-centered care, and informatics.

The overall goal through all phases of The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is to address the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work. In order to accomplish this goal, six competencies were defined. These competencies from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) are patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, informatics and safety. Over a decade has passed since the Institute of Medicine’s reports on the need to improve the American healthcare system. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

Over time the health care industry has become more complex. Health care is rapidly evolving and continuing to complicate our delivery of care, which in turn has the same effect on quality of care. This steady evolution and change results in nursing shortages and an increase in the prevalence of errors being made. In hopes of preventing these errors and creating safe and high quality patient care, with the focus on new and improved ways of thinking, The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed. The QSEN focuses on the following competencies: patient-centered care, quality improvement, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. Their initiatives work to prepare and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to make improvements in the quality and safety of health care systems (Qsen.org, 2014).

Patients want and expect to receive high quality care. Nurses want to provide the best care possible to their patients and like everybody else; want a pleasing job environment. Hospitals, on the other hand, are expected to provide a safe environment to patients, have enough nursing staff and remain profitable (Keller, Dulle, Kwiecinski, Altimier & Owens, 2013). The ultimate goal is to improve quality of care and patient safety across the United States; therefore, all the different interests of these major stakeholders should be taken into

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recognized five key core competencies (CCs) that all healthcare professionals should be aware of during practice. The initial competency described concentrates on patient-centered care. Throughout history, the nursing community has continued to evolve, both in the practicing aspect and in level of caring for patients. During this evolution of nursing care, nurses providing hands on care to patients must refer to the Institute of Medicine, peer reviews and/or evidenced-based research to guide them properly as it applies to the core concepts of nursing. The first core competency according to the IOM is patient-centered care.

The five core competencies identified by IOM and the sixth added by QSEN, safety, are believed to be necessary to improve both quality and safety of the healthcare system within which nurses work (Multimethod teaching). The six core competencies outlined are patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, informatics, and safety (Diffusing Qsen). While all competencies are significant to the healthcare system, patient centered care is vital to positive patient outcomes and focuses on the patient’s perspective within the healthcare system.

Errors pervade in our lives whether it is our home, in our workplace, or in our society. The effects of healthcare errors have impacted all our lives either directly or indirectly. Patient safety and quality care are at the core of healthcare system which strongly depends upon nurses. “To achieve goals in patient safety and quality, thereby improve healthcare, nurses must assume the leadership role. Nurses need to ensure that they and other healthcare providers center healthcare on patients and their families. Even though the quality and safety of healthcare is heavily influenced by the complex nature

The strategies to improve safety and highlight the quality of care offered by the nursing professional are focused on the evidence of new knowledge approach that transform the practical setting. I do believe that a transition to practice model improve the quality care and safety centered in the patient outcomes. One example is The Model Competence, Quality Care, and Patient Safety (COPA) that promotes four scientific performance skills first “specification of essential core practice skills, the second “end-result outcomes; practice-driven, “third, interactive learning strategies” and fourth, “the objective competency performance”. (Lenburg, et al. 2011).

In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)

Thank you for your post. As an emergency department nurse, you care for individuals with many illnesses that require a higher complexity of patient care. Therefore, well trained nurses are needed who are capable of creating a patient-centered and safe environment (Kieft, de Brouwer, Francke, & Delnoij, 2014). The nursing environment is an essential determining factor in providing quality patient experiences. In order to provide quality patient care, the nurses work environment should entail, good nurse-physician relationships, autonomous nursing practice, control over nursing practice, support for education, and a culture that values concerns for patients (Kief, de brouwer, Francke, & Delnoij, 2014).

Changes in the Health Care System and the Practice of Nursing have become complex. Technological changes, complicated client needs, short hospital length of stay, and departure from acute care to community based care, all these changes have underscore the need for professional nurses to think critically in order to provide safe and effective client care. A better educated nursing workforce can provide good health education to patients and their families. The affordable care of 2010 has required the need for nurses to expand their role of practice to meet complicated patient demands. This has prompted the Institute Of Medicine to review the “Future of Nursing, Leading change and Advancing Health”. {Creasia & Fribery,2011}

As a competent registered nurse, my career goal is to become a healthcare quality improvement leader, a position that would enhance my commitment in promoting patient safety. I not only believe in enhancing the capacity of other care providers, but also in improving the quality of the healing environment for the benefit of both patients and their care providers. This means not only promoting collaboration with the multidisciplinary teams, but also building the necessary healing partnerships with our patients. To enhance the quality of the healing environment, I aspire to continue analyzing researches for evidence based practices and advocating for their actualization. I will continue focusing my time and energy in encouraging other nurses to improve their skills through formal education, so they can empower themselves as advocates of quality improvement for the benefit of their patients and coworkers.

Weston, M. & Roberts, D., 2013, September. The Influence of Quality Improvement Efforts on Patient Outcomes And Nursing Work: A Perspective from Chief Nursing Officers at Three Large Health Systems. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Retrieved on January 23, 2015 from http://www.nursingworld.org/Quality-Improvement-on-Patient-Outcomes.html

Ongoing development and changes in healthcare delivery enable nurses to maintain standards of nursing and develop their competence and performance. Through this the patients well-being is maintained, respecting them through accessing up to date knowledge and skills that are essential in an ever changing environment.

Before the NCLEX exam was established, each state created its own nursing regulations and exams to determine the competency of nursing students (“NCLEX-RN® Examination”, 2016). In 1941, the National League of Nursing created a better exam that was adopted by all states, in order to streamline the process, and the test was called the State Board Test Pool Examination (“NCLEX-RN® Examination”, 2016). Locations to take the exam were very limited and had to be big enough to accommodate many people at once, since the test was only offered twice a year, and in order to take it, student nurses had to register about six months in advance by mailing in their approval to test (Johnson & Kappel). The exam was given using paper and pencil, and for every thirty-five students, a retired nurse was hired as a proctor (Johnson & Kappel). The questions were the same for all the students in order to make testing fair, and students had to wait for weeks before their results arrived in the mail (Johnson & Kappel). The test was officially named the NCLEX in 1982 after the National Council of State Boards of Nursing took over the responsibility of the test nationally a few years beforehand (Johnson & Kappel). The total number of questions on the test before 1982 was 720, before being reduced to 480 and then 370 questions (“NCLEX-RN® Examination”, 2016).