Nursing Education Development
With the exception of a few years in the early 1990s, the shortage of nurses to provide care in hospitals has been a chronic problem with intermittent acute exacerbations since the 1930s. What effects at both macro-level (e.g. public opinion, social policy) and micro-level (e.g. individual schools, courses) has this had on nursing education? Has the net balance of positive and negative effects been beneficial for nursing education? Why?
There has been a continuous shortage of nurses and the main reasons being; problems of retention and recruitment, improper working environments, and image distortion by the public (Whitehead, 2016). Since “the golden age” in the 1800’s 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.
There are many impacts of the shortage of nurses on medicine faulty at large, 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). There is a need to enroll as many nurses as possible since there is a lot of resources put in place to improve medical care through nursing. The shortage of nurses has an impact on nursing education by the inadequate utilization of support provided. 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. According to public opinion, there are not enough nurses to make use of the information technology provided in medicine like; X-ray, research laboratories, advanced medical equipment, among others.
There is a continuous advancement of the curriculum in nursing. Nursing programs are expanding their curriculum to accommodate many theories and studies to expose them to learning experiences (Kenny, 2016). The shortage of nurses has an effect on nursing education by the increased demand for nurses to use this curriculum. There being a high demand for specialized care globally, shortage of nurses affects the ability to have skilled medical care. There is no beneficial gain on this effect on nursing education since there is reduced utilization of medical information due to the shortage of nurses.
There are many significant challenges facing 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. There is poor professional development, little or no nursing scholars, and low academic scholarship in nursing education, which is 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, there is a challenge of nurses not being integrated as part of the healthcare workforce. 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.
Debate the wisdom and feasibility of setting the master’s degree as the minimum marker for the professional segment of the nursing continuum. Given the 20/20 hindsight gained from the debacle of the 1965 Position Paper, how would you advise national nursing organizations to go about changing this definition, if it were to be changed?
The 1965 position paper is a statement that was founded by the American Nurses Association states, the least requirement while starting professional nursing at the time was a baccalaureate degree in nursing. 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). Hospital schools usually produced graduates who later transitioned from senior students to new graduates. Most of the graduates practiced 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, since at the time it was viral in nursing, and seen as an appropriate level (Kenny, 2016). There was the implementation of a plan under the American Nurses Association to influence the first position paper on the education of nursing, but it was unable to.
There was much documentation on the challenges of retaining and recruiting nurses, which they saw as a diminishing department. There was a significant influence that took place in hospitals, where they practice, and the study of nursing was based on protocols and medical standards (Hudspeth, 2016). Significant nursing institutions and officers of nursing started 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). When there was a large population of patients, hospitals started demanding more nurses who were hard to find, which is the time when hospitals experienced competition from clinics, nursing facilities, home care, and surgery centers, which expanded vastly. There was a great realization of the need for nursing education at this time. 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.
The shortage of nurses to provide care is a big challenge in the whole healthcare community. There is a shortage of teachers in significant nursing institutions hence being hard to overcome the scarcity of nurses primarily (Klek, 2016). I view the 1965 position paper as mandatory in nursing education to improve patient care. There is a lot of under-educated nurses that departments of nursing should not be offering. So many registered nurses lack educational attainment and accomplishments; hence would advise national nursing organizations not to change the definition if it was to be replaced.
Analyze how the triangulation of subject, setting, and student characteristics serve to frame curriculum planning and development.
Triangulation of subject, setting, and student characteristics are used by teachers 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 behavior and come up with a curriculum design that is biased to single behavioral observations. Considering the subject, setting, and student characteristics in the development of a curriculum provide a more strategic curriculum than using just one variable to develop one.
Conduct a literature search on the history and evolution of nursing curricula. Summarize the critical aspects of the scholarly article, and speculate on how past and present events will frame the future.
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 practiced 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. There are ongoing ways to make sure that nursing education is providing specialized nurses to provide medical care. Global and national bodies are emphasizing on the need to advance the education level of nurses (Egenes, 2017). Healthcare institutions are funding medical centers 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 ( ). 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.
Following the evolution of nursing education, we can be able to frame the future by its past and present. Diploma and degree programs will remain in place to create a nursing workforce that will require a baccalaureate degree to practice. There will be a 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. By doing this, nurses will be preparing for competitions of high levels in healthcare and complex health needs. The constant variable that has been present throughout this evolution 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-centered 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
Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages—the facts, the impact, and action for change. British medical bulletin, 130(1), 25-37.
Egenes, K. J. (2017). History of nursing. Issues and trends in nursing: Essential knowledge for today and tomorrow, 1-26.
Egerod, I., Kaldan, G., Lindahl, B., Hansen, B. S., Jensen, J. F., Collet, M. O., … & Jensen, H. I. (2020). Trends and recommendations for critical care nursing research in the Nordic countries: Triangulation of review and survey data. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 56, 102765.
Harker, M. (2017). History of nursing education evolution Mildred Montag. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 12(4), 295-297.
Hudspeth, R. S. (2016). The BSN quest 50 years after the 1965 position paper. Nursing administration quarterly, 40(1), 90-92.
Kenny, P., Reeve, R., & Hall, J. (2016). Satisfaction with nursing education, job satisfaction, and work intentions of new graduate nurses. Nurse education today, 36, 230-235.
Klek, S., Forbes, A., Gabe, S., Holst, M., Wanten, G., Irtun, Ø., … & Blaser, A. R. (2016). Management of acute intestinal failure: A position paper from the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) Special Interest Group. Clinical Nutrition, 35(6), 1209-1218.
Whitehead, L. C., & Myers, H. (2016). The effect of hospital nurse staffing models on patient and staff-related outcomes.