THE ESSENCE OF NURSING

Instructions:

 

Respond to your colleagues. Respond with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information to two or more of your colleagues.

Kristen Dross

As a relatively newer nurse, I'm starting to understand why it's vital that we keep up with the latest evidence-based practices and the most recent knowledge that provides better patient care. During all the research for this week's topic, I better understand why HCAPS scores exist and why we are required to continue our education to renew our licenses. While pursuing my ARNP degree, I expect to be taught all the informational side of my degree. The skills and knowledge I need to achieve my goal will be learned throughout this journey.

After reading our resources for this week, I better understand why we need to improve our health system. According to Salmond, S. & Echevarria, M. (2017) United States health system is ranked last or near last on health measures, quality, access, and cost. We as a nation need to do better for ourselves, our families, and our communities; most people can't afford health insurance anymore, or if they can, it's outrageous, so they don't seek medical care until it's an emergency. When patients sought care in the emergency room, it was like they only cared about the number of patients they served and not the quality of care provided. This is why I believe HCAPS was started, "Improving value means avoiding costly mistakes and readmissions, keeping patients healthy, rewarding quality instead of quantity" (Burwell, 2015).

While I'm excited to see what the next three years hold for my future, I want to ensure the University meets all my expectations. I know this journey will be challenging, but once I receive my master's degree, it will all be worth it. I expect the University to provide me with all the knowledge required to fulfill my degree choice; I also expect it to give the newest evidence-based expertise because it is constantly changing. Once I start my clinical, I want to be able to put all my knowledge into practice, and I want to be able to succeed. I have high expectations that I will obtain, but only because we have great potential to help better our healthcare system. It's up to the newer generation of nurses to help change how healthcare workers are treated today; it's up to us to find the solution to the nurse shortage we face, and we will continue to meet until we all unite. I want to learn ways we can accomplish this while still providing the best practice to our patients.

As a newer nurse, I don't have many skills other than what was taught during nursing school and the few I've picked up on in my short three years. I strive to learn new skills and knowledge that will help better our healthcare system. "The reality is that everyone's role is changing- the patients, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals- across the entire continuum of care" (Salmond, S. & Echevarria, M, 2017). To learn new skill sets, I need to remain open-minded and learn from the older generation of nurses; those nurses have progressed over time while our healthcare system is changing. The only way we can progress is to accept the change and provide evidence-based practices to help advance what we call our health system.

 

Reference

· Salmond, S. & Echevarria, M. (2017).  Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursingLinks to an external site. Links to an external site. . Orthopedic Nursing, 36(1), 12–25. http://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308