Educational Entry Level for Professional Nurses

educational Entry Level for Professional nurse Practice The stolon stance paper calling for baccalaureate degree as the marginal requirement for entry into professional nursing was released in 1965 by the American Nurses Association. This stimulates an ongoing frustrating debate among nurses. The Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing is the largest health mission profession with 2. 5 million jobs and is projected to generate 587,000 more jobs mingled with 2006-2016.Despite strength in numbers nurses ar the least amend of all the interdisciplinary health administer team members with whom they collaborate. Teams consist of physicians pharmacists, speech pathologists, and physical and occupational therapists. Patients are living longer than expected and health assist providers need the ability to think critically and provide health business organisation services at levels never before imagined. Each of these disciplines recognized the vastness of higher education to deliver appropriate tolerant care. The health care industry is changing rapidly.Because of advances in medicine, technology and lifesaving techniques. Patients have a get around chance of surviving traumatic injury, life threatening disease processes, and handsome surgical procedures that ever before. Results of various studies suggest baccalaureate prepared nurses are more likely to demonstrate professional behaviors chief(prenominal) to patient safety. RNs educated at baccalaureate level or preceding(prenominal) have note risk adjusted mortality rates and lower rates of failure to rescue. The failure to rescue relates to expirys in patients with serious complications.Nursing is a knowledge based profession. Researchers have found perceived differences that are particularly related to education. These differences are perceived to be related to nurses with bachs degrees Greater critical thinking skills Less task o rient More professionalism Stronger leadership skills More focused on continuity of care and outcome More focus on psychosocial components, communication and patient teaching. It is of import to me for nursing to represent a credible profession that roduces the best unaffiliated critical thinking healthcare professionals that provide safe, quality patient care. It is important for nursing leaders and managers when evaluating patient outcomes as they relate to educational levels of nurses. reliable research by Linda Aiken found that patient outcomes are related to educational levels of RNs. The results of Aikens research also found that a 10% increase in nurses with BSN degrees caring for the patients decreased the risk of patient death and failure to rescue by 5%. E very(prenominal)one in the healthcare schema would benefit from improved patient outcomes.Educational mobility to the BSN level is important to incontrovertible outcomes, creation of a reliable professional identity and unity among nurses. I believe the salaries of nurses are directly tied to our educational status. More agencies should apply the human resources departments to develop tuition reimbursement programs and promote higher education of their employees. Educational institutions should develop committees to perform research and look deeper in the nursing educational curriculum and provide surveys to obtain public opinion of nurse educational levels.A common finding from the articles addressed the fact that resources need to be redirected to jut out baccalaureate entry and end licensure at the associated degree and fleece levels. The on or begins in community colleges and end in tetrad year degree granting institutions. The research included the need for funding to support community college and university collaborations. The development of an action plan for Professional Development is very important. Managers and leaders should include this process in performance improvement sessi ons and during instruct and counseling.Personal improvement of staff provides the promotion to a better position to assist others. Members of staff should consider returning to school, certification or credentialing, and battle on committees for educational advancement. A plan should be created to develop goals, brushup goals and action plans frequently, set timelines and commit to completion. Nurses must move further on the educational continuum and prepare a strong well educated workforce. RNs are important to patient safety at some(prenominal) level of education and play a vital role in lowering mortality rates, preventing medical errors, and ensuring quality outcomes.Nurses with various levels of educational readiness will continue to practice for many years to come, but a decision about the future education of nurses needs to be do now. References Mark, B. , Salyer, J. , Wan, T. (2003) Professional nursing practice impact on organizational and patient outcomes. JONA 33(4 ), 224-234. Goodin, H. ( 2004) The shortage in the united states of America an integrative review of the literature Journal of Advanced Nursing 43 (4), 335-350. Nelson, M. (2002) Nursing practice expression backward into the future. Online Journal of Nursing. 7 (2) 43-66.