Contemporary Nursing Practice: Florence Nightingale
The field of nursing has changed over time. In a 750‐1,000 word paper, discuss nursing practice today by addressing the following:
1. Explain how nursing practice has changed over time and how this evolution has changed the scope of practice and the approach to treating the individual.
2. Compare and contrast the differentiated practice competencies between an associate and baccalaureate education in nursing. Explain how scope of practice changes between an associate and baccalaureate nurse.
3. Identify a patient care situation and describe how nursing care, or approaches to decision‐making, differ between the BSN‐prepared nurse and the ADN nurse.
4. Discuss the significance of applying evidence‐based practice to nursing care and explain how the academic preparation of the RN‐BSN nurse supports its application.
5. Discuss how nurses today communicate and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams and how this supports safer and more effective patient outcomes.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
u
Contemporary Nursing Practice
Student’s Name
Institution
Contemporary Nursing Practice
Ever since the times of Florence Nightingale, change has been a constant thing in nursing practice. Significant changes have occurred not only in the scope of practice but also in the approach of treating the individual. While in the past the practice was primarily considered care-taking, the modern practice is characterized by numerous responsibilities, including advocacy, leading of healthcare teams, and carrying out research (Texas Woman’s University, 2019). These responsibilities have been accelerated to a great extent by the implementation of the report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which has had an immense impact on the profession (Hooper, 2016). The 2010 report recommended among other aspects the expansion of the role of nurses by removing barriers, lifelong learning, and preparation of nurses to lead change in healthcare. Nurses are thus offering many services as physicians. There has also been an increase in the use of the evidence-based practice to improve patient outcomes (McMenamin et al., 2019). In treating the individual, there has been an increased focus on patient-centered care characterized by safety and high-quality care. As can be seen, tremendous changes have occurred in the profession over time and more changes are bound to occur in the future to attain better outcomes for patients.
Associate and baccalaureate education differ in a number of ways based on the competencies taught. While associate education focuses more on technical clinical skills, baccalaureate education trains individuals on nursing research, leadership, and management (Nightingale College, 2017). While both degrees train nurses to meet generally accepted standards, baccalaureate education focuses more on advanced healthcare issues such as advocacy, disease prevention, informatics, and community health (Nightingale College, 2017). Therefore, baccalaureate education is not only more in-depth but it also covers a wider scope of healthcare issues compared to associated education. According to Finkelman (2019), while ADN functions in structured settings characterized by established policies, procedures, and protocols, BSN graduates tend to have more autonomy as they can work in both structured and unstructured healthcare settings. Therefore, the scope of practice expands significantly from associate nurse to baccalaureate nurse with the latter more focused of macro factors affecting healthcare.
Approaches to decision-making differ between BSN and ADN nurses. Take for example a case of a patient Joe, who is a drug addict but now has been admitted for extensive trauma. The provider, however, has refused to order enough pain medication to facilitate the treatment of the patient. In this case, the approach may be different between ADN nurse and a BSN nurse. Given their function in structured settings, the ADN nurse may decide not to go up the chain of command to meet the needs of the patient. On the other hand, a BSN nurse is unlikely to ignore the situation and would thus have that uncomfortable dialogue with the admi...