Few professions have changed to the degree that nursing has in the past one hundred years. Despite the obvious challenges, most notably the ongoing nursing shortage, it is crucial to update the requirements of being certified as a registered nurse. The only logical approach to this, taking into account the evolution of the three points of entry, is to adapt the system to require a B.S. Many leaders in nursing appear to support this view and the history of nursing mandates this new change. To look at the prevailing trends in health care delivery in any capacity requires a look at the education of nurses. Entry level nursing has a greater impact on the standard of care that is delivered in health care today because nurse shape the entire profession of medicine. In our era where funds are hard to find, the need for nursing resources and education is so acute because of staffing shortages. Regardless of the historical struggles for respect because of the challenging "idea that the nature of the task defines the status of the worker [is] deeply ingrained in the hospital world with its roots in the nineteenth-century work philosophy" (Baly, 1995, p. 213), the respect given the nursing profession is an ongoing concern and one that cannot be taken lightly. A 2002 Faculty Survey by the National League of Nursing concluded that there are not enough teachers to educate enough nurses to ameliorate the ongoing and longstanding nursing shortage and this gap in education needs to be addressed for the profession to move forward. It is impossible to raise the standard of nursing education without having a plethora of qualified educators.
[...] Where Have All the Nurses Gone?. Public Interest 23+. Evans, L. K. & Lang, N. M. (Eds.). (2004). Academic Nursing Practice. New York: Springer. Fabre, J. (2005). Smart Nursing: How to Create a Positive Work Environment That Empowers and Retains Nurses. New York: Springer. Gerber, D. E., & McGuire, S. L. (1999). Part 1--Nursing Role and Basic Curricula. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 69-79. Retrieved October from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95724689 Goodman-Draper, J. (1995). Health Care's Forgotten Majority: Nurses and Their [...]
[...] The Hospital Diploma program is a bit different because the credit hours are all science-oriented (usually between 30 and 60) and then intensive nursing classes are presented in an ongoing health care situation, usually a hospital. Until about ten years ago, most RNs were first educated by diploma programs. It was a simple, task-oriented way of teaching procedure that could be done in all hospital environments. It harkens back to a different time of nursing in certain ways, but in others, there will always be highly specialized and detailed aspects of direct patient care that will require the hands and hearts of nurses, be the tasks, mundane or "contact with profane materials with humor, tolerance, complaint, and magical thinking; with the protective medical aseptic practices of bathing, hand washing, and wearing gloves; and with the pathogen-specific precautions of isolation procedures. [...]
[...] When Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not was published in 1860, no one could have predicted the vast scope of learning and academic material that would evolve in the history of nursing education. From Clara Barton becoming the first President of the American Red Cross in 1881 to 1992 when Eddie Bernice Johnson was the first nurse elected to Congress, the standards have been on the rise. Thus, it is certainly time to reassess the outdated system of licensure. [...]
[...] The Associate Degree in Nursing also prepares students with knowledge, critical faculties and teaching that prepares them for providing direct client care and acute and chronic needs that emerge in health care but it is less of an academic education. Some feel that the ADN's strengths are that, by providing a more nursing-centered approach and not having as many normal college electives, it can provide a greater focus on roles such as being a provider of care, managing care or, in general, being part of a health care team. [...]
[...] Some believe that the lack of nursing teachers with advanced degrees limits the number of educators in degree programs (Smith & Fitzpatrick, 2006), though a differing opinion is that nurse educators are not paid commensurately with their peers and are therefore more likely to use their specialized knowledge in higher paying specialized positions in health care rather than academia, with the latter somewhat supported by the ongoing concern that health care, throughout the country, is starting to have a star system where the better insured or those who can pay out of their own pockets are more likely to be able to afford the proven successes of the industry. [...]
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