Nursing Education Development
Introduction
Continuous advancement of the curriculum in nursing is significant in nursing education. Nursing programs are expanding their curriculum to accommodate theories and studies to expose them to learning experiences. The shortage has increased demand for nurses to use this curriculum. High demand for specialized care globally due to lack of nurses affects the ability to have skilled medical care. No beneficial gain on this effect on nursing education is evident since there is reduced utilization of medical information. The shortage is a big challenge in the whole healthcare community. Shortage of teachers in significant nursing institutions is experienced, hence being hard to overcome the scarcity of nurses primarily. The 1965 position paper is mandatory in nursing education to improve patient care. A lot of under-educated nurses that departments of nursing should not be offering seem to exist. Many registered nurses lack educational attainment and accomplishments, and it would be advisable for the national nursing organizations to expand their curriculum to accommodate theories and programs.
Impact of Nurse Shortage on nursing education
Continuous shortage of nurses has been a challenge and the main reasons being; problems of retention and recruitment, improper working environments, and image distortion by the public (Whitehead, 2016). Since the 1800s of western medicine, there has been a high demand for nurses to provide medical care. According to the World Heal Organization (WHO), there is a shortage of almost 4.3 million nurses and physicians (Drennan, 2019). During the evolution of medicine specialization where X-ray, pharmacists, therapists, among other skills, were introduced, nursing skills were not highly focused, due to the historical belief, that it was a female-oriented skill. The perception changed in the early 20th century, where the medical model gets introduced in the education of nurses, which explained nursing as a profession with high skills.
Various impacts of the shortage of nurses on medicine faulty at large exist, both at macro and micro levels. On a more specific perspective, the lack of nurses has a significant impact on nursing education on both levels. The growth of information technology has expanded in nursing has expanded the information that nurses need to know (Kenny, 2016). Enrollment of many nurses as possible is necessary since there are a lot of resources put in place to improve medical care through nursing. The shortage leads to inadequate utilization of support. The improper use of resources is not beneficial to nursing education since there are a lot of wasted resources on nursing education, causing poor medical care (Klek, 2016). According to public opinion, not enough nurses make use of the information technology provided in medicine like; X-ray, research laboratories, advanced medical equipment, among others.
Many significant challenges face nursing education on a micro level that is based on a shortage of nurses to provide medical care. In many institutions and schools, shortage of nurses has caused challenges like inadequate skill development, high demand for specialized care, and lack of knowledge development. Inadequate professional development, little or no nursing scholars, and low academic scholarship in nursing education, are as a result of a shortage of nurses (Kenny, 2016). The lack of nurses brings about these challenges hence being a negative effect, therefore, being non-beneficial on nursing education.
Also, on a micro-level, in medical care facilities, a challenge of nurses not being integrated as part of the healthcare workforce is evident. Inter-professional in health care is significant in improving the result of patients (Horn, 2018). The shortage of nurses is one of the barriers that hinder the provision of enhanced medical care, which is a challenge in nursing education. Nurses having understaffed, do not have time to be educated on how inter-profession works hence the lack of improved medical care. It is a disadvantage to nursing education since it does not enable nurses to learn how to integrate, therefore not of any benefit.
Master’s Degree for the Professional Segment
The 1965 position paper is a statement that was founded by ANA. It states that the least requirement while starting professional nursing was a baccalaureate degree. According to a study done on medical care, learners were taught to give the best satisfaction to ill patients, to work with medical staff and nurses, and adapt nursing and therapeutic procedures (Klek, 2016). Most graduates practised medicine in environments where their training took place. A lot of these schools were put into consideration of offering the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. At the time, it was viral in nursing and seen as an appropriate level (Kenny, 2016). Implementation of a plan under ANA to influence the first position paper on the education of nursing was put in place but unable to.
Documentation on the challenges of retaining and recruiting nurses was standard since they saw it as a diminishing department was done by health organizations. Significant influence took place in hospitals, when they started practising, and studying based on protocols and medical standards (Hudspeth, 2016). Significant nursing institutions and officers of nursing began emphasizing the significance of nursing education and gave hospitals more measures to educate nurses. The reduction of medical staff made the nurses assume medical responsibility to patients. The nursing community is aware that when patients are many, it is their opportunities to implement their learning since there is additional patient care needed (Klek, 2016). A large population of patients made hospitals start demanding more nurses who were hard to find. At the time hospitals experienced competition from clinics, nursing facilities, home care, and surgery centres, which expanded vastly (Kenny, 2016). High need for nursing education at this time was realized. The students who were undergoing degree school joined work very fast, where they just completed three to four programs.
Nursing was seen to be too unrewarding and invaluable, with a lot of demands coming with it. It was dominated by the female who challenged feminists and men. Recruitment and how the staff was specialized changed when the first position of paper education was implemented (Hudspeth, 2016). High school is the determinant of career-advancing, as well as financial autonomy. A Master’s degree in the field of advanced practice is the level of education that has enabled nurses to acquire more independence, finance increment, and career control (Hudspeth, 2016). The National Commission on Nursing was committed to ensuring the maturity of nursing and advocated for the relationship between practices and education, nursing resources management, among other campaigns that promote nursing.
Curriculum Planning and Development
Teachers use subject triangulation, setting, and the characteristics of a student to collect data or information about their students learning habits. It involves three sources; conversations, observations, and products. Discussions are for communicating with students to converse while collecting date (Egerod, 2020). Views take place during class exercises and in group works. Products are the assessments done to students like tasks, exams, or projects. It enables teachers to know students‘ skills, progress, capabilities, and needs, which helps in developing a curriculum since the teachers have much information about students on their strengths and weaknesses. It is an essential tool of always being aware of students’ performance since it brings about reducing uncertainty in students about their learning patterns, hence help in developing a curriculum (Egerod, 2020). It is done by a continuous assessment of students, including knowing their strengths and weaknesses. This help teachers combine multiple learning behaviour and come up with a curriculum design that is biased to single behavioural observations. Thus, the development of a curriculum provides a more strategic curriculum than using just one variable to develop one.
The History and Evolution of Nursing Curricula
Nursing curriculum development in nursing is the process whose main aim is to provide curricula that have relevant and understandable content, unified curriculum, and one that is equipped with evidence. It is practised in schools of nursing as an ongoing process to establish their curriculum. History of nursing education started as formal education back in the 17th century, which is also evident with the French sisters’ charity (Harker, 2017). The nurses were untrained helpers, usually servants. Formal education of nursing started in 1633, where nurses would go through a course study of two months to practice, then followed by seven to eight-month supervision and instructions (Egenes, 2017). Nursing education curricula are associated with Florence Nightingale, who was offering nursing services in the 1860s. She opened the first nursing training school in London, hence defining nursing education for the first time. Nurses of New Zealand, and the American Nurses Association, started the initiative of teaching nursing, which spread to other countries (Harker, 2017). In 1923, Yale University established the first nursing school that was based on education on, rather than the needs of hospitals, which was the stepping stone to nursing education, where universities across the world adapted nursing schools of their own.
Today, nursing education has quit advanced where there is education offered by colleges, universities, online learning, and verbal teaching. It is effortless for men and women to become nurses in their surroundings since it is easy to access. Global and national bodies are emphasizing on the need to advance the education level of nurses (Egenes, 2017). Healthcare institutions are funding medical centres to send nurses back to school to attain a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
The ultimate objective of the nursing curricula is to advance student’s knowledge professionally, improve their skills and values, and build their identity. It is achieved by providing opportunities and chances in the nursing community. For the future, the IOM recommendation will enable us to secure an educated nursing community ((Egenes, 2017). It states that nurses should be involved in patient care according to their level of education and recommending nurses to learn to a doctoral degree.
Conclusion
Following the evolution of nursing education, we can be able to frame the future by its past and present. Nursing organizations and the government as well will need to make reforms and create a better education environment. According to Harker (2017), diploma and degree programs were the requirements needed to join the nursing workforce; therefore, they will be maintained in future nursing education. Continuation of master’s education in nursing and doctoral education is expected to grow, mainly due to the implementation of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. As Egenes (2017) discusses in today’s education, doctoral education prepares nurses for competitions of high levels in healthcare and complex health needs; therefore, we can speculate it will be maintained in the future. The constant variable that has been present throughout this evolution as Egerod, (2020) describes is nursing leadership, which has been investigating the curriculum and advocating reforms for quality education. These leaders and educators have been implementing these reforms towards a patient-centred curriculum which the nursing education aims to provide. Students today are benefiting from a long history and evolution of nursing education, which has been advocating for prepared nurse practices. The same advocacy needs to continue in nursing education to secure an educated nursing community in the future.
References
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