Nursing is the safeguarding, enhancing and making the best of health and capabilities in averting sickness and injury and lessening of distress through the analysis and treatment of human reactions, and encouraging the care of people at all social units (The American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1). According to the Grand Canyon University College of Nursing, health, environment and the individual are the major focus of effective nursing training and practice. BSN nursing encompasses evaluating, analytical thinking, disseminating, care giving, teaching, and leading.
Research indicates that half of the registered nurses (RN) workforce possesses a baccalaureate or graduate degree. On the other hand, 36.1% acquired an associate degree while 13.9% have a diploma in nursing (The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011, p. 1). Many health authorities hold that education greatly influences a nurse’s capacity to practice and that patients have a right to the most excelled nursing workforce available. Various studies indicate a relationship between baccalaureate education and positive patients’ reactions i.e. reduced death rates, and increased rescue rates (The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011, p. 1).
Disparities in the competence of ADN or BSN nurses can be understood through the analysis, the history and basic structure of nursing. Nursing theories take various approaches to administering patient care and are intensely rooted in the nursing history. The holistic approach to nursing encompasses the individual, family or community receiving nursing care, the conditions affecting the receiver, their health status and the personality of the care giver. Therefore, models basically focus on growth, stability and complexity and any comparisons have their basis on these concepts (Hood & Leddy, 2006, p. 92).
There was no professional nursing in the old days and women or anyone attended to the ill. Florence Nightingale, the mother of contemporary nursing introduced reforms in hospitals sanitation techniques and in preservation of public health. Her efforts saw great changes in the mortality rate at that time, therefore, giving nursing the credit it deserved. Florence was instrumental in using newer techniques of evaluating statistical and graphical information to anticipate deaths and persuade the authorities to back her (Hood & Leddy, 2006, p. 114). Ever since, civilization has expanded to establish a culture that involves developments in education for the nursing profession in order to ameliorate patient care.
A great deal can be achieved in groups as opposed to individuals as long as the crowd is attentive and active (Azer, 2005, p. 677). Group dynamics are the synergy among people in a given assembly whose roles are mostly dependent on the individuals’ personality and experience within the grouping environment. Team-building entails members depending on each other’s resources to achieve a common objective. Group dynamics create trust and promote bonding among members who also get acquainted and learn to work together. They also enhance critical thinking and understanding and improve on the group’s ability to think through problems together harmoniously (Azer, 2005, p. 678).
Nursing education is a culmination of ideologies, models, studies and practical knowledge of the profession. Consequently, nursing education and practice at all levels of study ought to focus on the transformation in health care provision achievable at both ADN and BSN levels. While there are increasing calls for reforms for more BSN and higher degree nurses, the (ADN) education continues to be the most feasible option for many who wish to get into the nursing profession. Most importantly, the capacity of these curriculums to duly equip students for the level of practice variety that is characteristic of the contemporary health care system must be evaluated, and their role illustrated in consideration of the future.
References
Azer, S. A. (2005). Challenges facing PBL tutors: 12 tips for successful group facilitation. Medical Teacher, 27(8), 676–681.
Hood, L. J., & Leddy, S. K. (2006). Conceptual bases of professional nursing (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011). Fact sheet: Creating a more highly qualified nursing workforce. Washington, DC.
The American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing world. Silver Spring, MD: The American Nurses Association.