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Sample Answer for NRS 440 Assignment: Reflection Paper Included After Question
Description:
The IOM published report, “Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” makes recommendations for lifelong learning and achieving higher levels of education.
In 1,000-1,250 words, examine the importance of nursing education and discuss your overall educational goals. Include the following:
1. Discuss your options in the job market based on your educational level.
2. Review the IOM Future of Nursing Recommendations for achieving higher levels of education. Describe what professional certification and advanced degrees (MSN, DNP, etc.) you want to pursue and explain your reasons for wanting to attain the education. Discuss your timeline for accomplishing these goals.
3. Discuss how increasing your level of education would affect how your competitiveness in the current job market and your role in the future of nursing.
4. Discuss the relationship of continuing nursing education to competency, attitudes, knowledge, and the ANA Scope and Standards for Practice and Code of Ethics.
5. Discuss whether continuing nursing education should be mandatory. Provide support for your response.
You are required to cite to a minimum of three sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and relevant to nursing practice.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to theLopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NRS 440 Assignment: Reflection Paper
Title: NRS 440 Assignment: Reflection Paper
Nurses join the demanding profession looking forward to achieving many career and personal goals. Besides individual satisfaction, nurses are motivated to join a rewarding career that plays an instrumental role in society’s transformation. To excel in this practice, nurses are advised to advance their skills since it helps them to understand patient care issues and practice challenges. Advanced skills also help nurses to perform as nursing essentials obligate (Mlambo et al., 2021). They also increase nurses’ competency, which makes them more employable in the competitive market. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of nursing education and my overall educational goals.
Options in the Job Market Based on the Current Educational Level
Different states allow nurses to practice differently depending on their educational levels. Some allow nurse practitioners to practice independently, while others require career-long supervision (DePriest et al., 2020). My current education allows me to work independently in many states and engage in patient care directly. As a result, advancing education will allow me to be a more experienced nurse practitioner who handles patient issues competently. Besides handling routine roles assigned by nurse leaders, I can work as a care coordinator, clinical nurse liaison, or patient coordinator. Broadly, these opportunities do not require advanced nursing skills, and I can handle them individually or as a team member. Patient and care coordination is critical to effective, efficient, and satisfactory care since they ensure health care professionals coordinate to formulate treatment and illness management plans that address patient needs comprehensively (Harkness, 2020). They also ensure that patients understand their health conditions and are actively involved in the management of their conditions.
Advanced Degree, Reasons, and Timeline
Nurses should be passionate about acquiring advanced skills and work hard to be more experienced professionals as time advances. Besides improving practice experience, continuous and advanced learning increases nurses’ confidence and ability to influence nursing practice through policy, leadership, and other interventions. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” report spotlights the need for nurses to advance their education since it empowers them to improve health and well-being among individuals and groups, formulate innovative care models, and effectively respond to disasters (National Academies of Medicine, 2021). Such knowledge will be instrumental in health care evolution as nursing practitioners, leaders, and health care stakeholders collaborate to reduce inequities and achieve cost-effective care.
Among the options for advanced degrees, I look forward to pursuing a Master of Science Nursing (MSN) in leadership. From a practice dimension, a master’s degree improves nurses’ practice experience and allows them to specialize in an area of interest (NurseJournal Staff, 2022). With patient care dynamics and workplace issues changing drastically, the nursing practice requires many nurse leaders committed to transforming the health care landscape. In response, the MSN in leadership degree will prepare me to engage actively in health care transformation through experience, leadership skills, and policymaking. Nurse leaders also engage in patient advocacy, which helps raise voices on patients’ behalf to ensure their needs are adequately addressed (Soklaridis et al., 2018). Typically, an MSN in leadership degree takes approximately two years to complete. As a result, it will take me two more years to complete the degree after I finish the current course.
Increasing Education Level, Competitiveness, and Role in the Future of Nursing
Like other professionals, nurses should be encouraged to attain the highest education possible to be more effective in their roles. Increasing my education level will impact my employability positively since most organizations put more emphasis on advanced skills when hiring. As Deering (2022) explained, most health care organizations prefer nurses with at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing since they associate nurses’ knowledge with patient outcomes. In this case, there is a basic assumption that highly educated nurses are better-prepared and highly skilled for the demanding profession. My role in the future of nursing will also be significantly affected by acquiring more skills and career experience. As a nursing professional looking forward to influencing the nursing practice through leadership, adequate preparation in leadership and management is critical. Broadly, the future of nursing will be characterized by a high demand for quality patient care, responding to issues such as nurse burnout and workplace incivility, and policymaking. As a nurse leader, I will be active in shaping the nursing practice in the future as it continues to cope with complex issues hampering patient care.
Nursing Education, Competency, Attitudes, Knowledge, and ANA Scope and Standards
Continuing nursing education leads to better outcomes for the nurse, patients, and the broader nursing practice. According to Fukada (2018), advancing education improves nurses’ skills and prepares them to address complex patient problems better. As a result, advanced nursing skills improves nurses’ competency as care practitioners and change implementers for quality patient care. Continuing education also helps nurses to better understand and engage more in patient advocacy, research translation to practice, and technology integration into patient care (Fulton & Holly, 2021). These competencies make them more confident professionals who perceive their role positively. Such perception improves nurses’ attitudes toward their professional mandate despite its complex challenges.
Nurses’ overall knowledge increases as their skills advance. For instance, a master’s prepared nurse gains more knowledge on informatics and health care technologies, health policy, and organizational and systems leadership (Fulton & Holly, 2021). This knowledge influences patient care positively since it improves care effectiveness and efficiency. As health dynamics change, nurses’ vulnerability to engaging in illegal and unethical practices increases. The ANA Scope and Standards for Practice and Code of Ethics dictate the practice requirements for nursing professionals and the fundamentals of ethical conduct. Continuing education improves nurses’ skills in these critical areas to ensure they engage in ethical practice and provide care that adheres to the generally accepted ethical principles.
Analyzing Whether Continuing Nursing Education Should Be Mandatory
Continuous education typifies the progressive improvement of skills, which is essential for all professionals. Mlambo et al. (2021) emphasized the same by underlining that continuous learning is crucial in careers where continuous professional development is necessary. Despite its role in the professional development of nurses, continuous education cannot be mandatory. It can only be encouraged and institutions supported with adequate resources for continuous education. Nurses should also be supported financially through subsidized education, grants, and scholarship to motivate them to continue their education. In this case, mandatory education cannot be practical, considering that basic education is already expensive.
Conclusion
Nurses’ professional skills vary with their quality of education. Typically, continuous education is associated with positive health outcomes since it enables nurses to understand patient care issues in-depth and provide innovative solutions. Due to the positive link between high competency and patient care outcomes, nurses should advance their education and embrace continuous professional development through lifelong learning. As further discussed in this paper, continuous education should not be mandatory due to the expensive nature of nursing education. Instead, it should be encouraged and nurses offered the appropriate support and motivation to advance their skills.
References
Deering, M. (2022). Top 10 advantages of a BSN degree. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/degrees/bsn/top-advantages-of-a-bsn-degree/
DePriest, K., D’Aoust, R., Samuel, L., Commodore-Mensah, Y., Hanson, G., & Slade, E. P. (2020). Nurse practitioners’ workforce outcomes under implementation of full practice authority. Nursing Outlook, 68(4), 459–467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.05.008
Fulton, J. S., & Holly, V. W. (2021). Clinical nurse specialist role and practice. Springer International Publishing.
Fukada, M. (2018). Nursing competency: Definition, structure and development. Yonago Acta Medica, 61(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.33160/yam.2018.03.001
Harkness, T. L. (2020). Effective care coordination and transition management for older adults. Nursing made Incredibly Easy, 18(5), 26-32. doi: 10.1097/01.NME.0000694184.27758.b9
Mlambo, M., Silén, C., & McGrath, C. (2021). Lifelong learning and nurses’ continuing professional development, a metasynthesis of the literature. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00579-2
National Academies of Medicine. (2021). The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/the-future-of-nursing-2020-2030
NurseJournal Staff. (2022). 25 reasons to get a master’s in nursing. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/degrees/msn/reasons-to-get-a-msn-degree/
Soklaridis, S., Bernard, C., Ferguson, G., Andermann, L., Fefergrad, M., Fung, K., … & Whitehead, C. (2018). Understanding health advocacy in family medicine and psychiatry curricula and practice: a qualitative study. PLoS One, 13(5), e0197590. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197590
Description
Objectives:
1. Discuss the importance of advanced nursing education and lifelong learning to the nursing profession.
2. Evaluate the correlation between continued education and competency, attitudes, and knowledge in the nursing profession.
Description:
Read Chapter 3 in Trends in Health Care: A Nursing Perspective.
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health
Description:
Refer to “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” located on the National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine website, as needed to complete your assignment.
Exploring the Value of Continuing Education Mandates
Description:
Read “Exploring the Value of Continuing Education Mandates,” by Smith (2003), located on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing website.
Continuing Competency
Description:
Read “Continuing Competency,” located on the Washington State Nurses Association website.
Fact Sheet: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Description:
Read “DNP Fact Sheet: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).” Download the PDF of this document from the DNP Fact Sheet page of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing website.
Scope of Practice
Description:
Read “Scope of Practice,” located on the American Nurses Association (ANA) website.
Transforming Nursing Education
Description:
Grading Rubric
Performance Category | 100% or highest level of performance
100% 16 points |
Very good or high level of performance
88% 14 points |
Acceptable level of performance
81% 13 points |
Inadequate demonstration of expectations
68% 11 points |
Deficient level of performance
56% 9 points
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Failing level
of performance 55% or less 0 points |
Total Points Possible= 50 | 16 Points | 14 Points | 13 Points | 11 Points | 9 Points | 0 Points |
Scholarliness
Demonstrates achievement of scholarly inquiry for professional and academic topics. |
Presentation of information was exceptional and included all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information was good, but was superficial in places and included all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information was minimally demonstrated in all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in one of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in two of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in three or more of the following elements
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16 Points | 14 Points | 13 Points | 11 Points | 9 Points | 0 Points | |
Application of Course Knowledge
Demonstrate the ability to analyze and apply principles, knowledge and information learned in the outside readings and relate them to real-life professional situations |
Presentation of information was exceptional and included all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information was good, but was superficial in places and included all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information was minimally demonstrated in the all of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in one of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in two of the following elements:
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Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in three of the following elements
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10 Points | 9 Points | 6 Points | 0 Points | |||
Interactive Dialogue
Initial post should be a minimum of 300 words (references do not count toward word count) The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each (references do not count toward word count) Responses are substantive and relate to the topic. |
Demonstrated all of the following:
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Demonstrated 3 of the following:
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Demonstrated 2 of the following:
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Demonstrated 1 or less of the following:
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8 Points | 7 Points | 6 Points | 5 Points | 4 Points | 0 Points | |
Grammar, Syntax, APA
Points deducted for improper grammar, syntax and APA style of writing. The source of information is the APA Manual 6th Edition Error is defined to be a unique APA error. Same type of error is only counted as one error. |
The following was present:
AND
AND
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The following was present:
AND/OR
AND/OR
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The following was present:
AND/OR
AND/OR
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The following was present:
AND/OR
AND/OR
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The following was present:
AND/OR
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The following was present:
AND/OR
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0 Points Deducted | 5 Points Lost | |||||
Participation
Requirements |
Demonstrated the following:
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Failed to demonstrate the following:
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0 Points Lost | 5 Points Lost | |||||
Due Date Requirements | Demonstrated all of the following:
A minimum of one peer and one instructor responses are to be posted within the course no later than Sunday, 11:59 pm MT. |
Demonstrates one or less of the following.
A minimum of one peer and one instructor responses are to be posted within the course no later than Sunday, 11:59 pm MT. |