Reflection Paper: Importance of Nursing Education
The IOM published report, "Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," makes recommendations for lifelong learning and achieving higher levels of education.
In 1,000-1,250 words, examine the importance of nursing education and discuss your overall educational goals.
Include the following:
1. Discuss your options in the job market based on your educational level.
2. Review the IOM Future of Nursing Recommendations for achieving higher levels of education. Describe what professional certification and advanced degrees (MSN, DNP, etc.) you want to pursue and explain your reasons for wanting to attain the education. Discuss your timeline for accomplishing these goals.
3. Discuss how increasing your level of education would affect how your competitiveness in the current job market and your role in the future of nursing. ( I work in the operating room, instructor knows that)
4. Discuss the relationship of continuing nursing education to competency, attitudes, knowledge, and the ANA Scope and Standards for Practice and Code of Ethics.
5. Discuss whether continuing nursing education should be mandatory. Provide support for your response.
You are required to cite to a minimum of three sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and relevant to nursing practice.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. 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.
Reflection Paper: Importance of Nursing Education
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Reflection Paper: Importance of Nursing Education
The improvement of health care delivery in nursing constitutes both external factors like government policies and internal influences like innovation and skill levels of nurses and organizational measures supporting quality. Professional advancement in nursing education expands nurses' knowledge and responsibilities, enhance their competitiveness, models their attitudes, and their grasp of the developments in standards and scope of quality care delivery. Nurses' level of education dictates their job opportunities according to the certification and specific career goals. The Institute of Medicine (2011) states that nursing education's importance is realized through its effect on the nurses' capacity to deliver safe and quality through coordination with other professionals, adaptation in a dynamic and evolving field, and smooth transition from academic to professional settings. This reflection analyzes the applicability of a bachelor of science in nursing in the job market by highlighting the qualified opportunities available for a BSN. Realizing the significance of nursing professional development in improving quality care can happen by improving the systems and policies (political and professional) that promote nurses' learning and career advancement opportunities.
Available Options in the Job Market
One of the benefits of current education policies is that they encourage nurse residency making. The Nurse Journal (2021) notes that licensed BSN graduates can assist with surgical care like preparation, recovery, assessment, communication, and procedures. Other collaborative care practices involving interprofessional collaboration as an assisting nurse would also comprise the potential job market. Outside the operating room, I can also be engaged in high schools or universities, prisons, or any other public institution to manage health practices and assist interdisciplinary teams during crises. I can also work in a private clinic to help in the scope employed by the physician. Other career options with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing would comprise alternative contexts like writing, public health, or a nurse representative.
IOM Review of Future of Nursing Recommendations and professional certification
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is the national body mandated with providing health professionals with the necessary informational, equipment, and technological resources to adapt to health care evolution. According to the Institute of Medicine (2009), the body holds an advisory role to the government on the appropriate practices by researching healthcare development to improve delivery through knowledge sharing. The institute formed a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2008 to produce institutional changes through action-based research in the healthcare system to provide recommendations on the improvement of nursing (IOM, 2011). The collaboration's recommendations sought to redefine nurses' role in improving healthcare through education redesigning, addressing contextual issues like technology, society, innovation, and increasing nurses' skill levels.
Some of the topics analyzed by the institute cover the full actuation of nurse training and education are facilitated by smooth progression and management of the nurse education system (IOM, 2011). It also through interprofessional coordination throughout the United States and the information infrastructure for effecting planning and policymaking. The recommendations include removing barriers in practice scope, expanding opportunities, implementing nursing residency, increasing BSN by 80% by 2020, double doctorates by 2020, and ensuring lifelong learning and leadership opportunities for nurses.
Among the professional certifications mentioned in the recommendations for lifelong learning and transition, I would like to achieve the Masters of science in nursing (MSN). Currently, I am in my first BSN, which is projected to increase by 80% by 2020, meaning that it will also require skill advancement in the future. To show the recommendation's impact (Campaign for Action, 2020) noted that BSN graduates surpassed associate degrees, indicating the need for skill specialization. The timeline for the MSN program would begin with RN licensing after graduation this year. I would also engage in part-time learning as I have to combine it with working, meaning that it would take three years from 2022-2025. Granger (2020) also notes that a part-time BSN to MSN degree involves clinical that covers continuing education within the three years of the program.
Role of education advancement in enhancing my competitiveness
One of the reasons to engage in education advancement is to ensure leadership orientation to supplement nursing skills through development programs and increased opportunities (IOM, 2011). An influx of BSN nurses faces the current job market due to the IOM policies allowing R...