One of the top priorities in developing a healthy society in which people feel comfortable is healthcare. Nurses play an important role in healthcare by advocating for health promotion, educating patients and the general public about illness and injury prevention, providing care and treatment help, and participating in rehabilitation and support. The field is constantly changing and evolving, with new approaches and models emerging to ease the complex work of nurses and improve the patient experience. In the past few years, the demands of increasingly complicated healthcare have transformed the role of nurses in this new terrain. Persons with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree are the most suited to satisfy the country’s growing need for nurses. Nurses with bachelor’s degrees are most qualified to function as healthcare professionals and patient advocates.
Nursing practice has changed significantly over time and continues to evolve. All professions are changing, but the area of nursing today has entirely new duties and expectations for people who work in it. When the nursing profession first developed, it had little to do with formal medical training. At that time, this profession was trained in the vast majority of women. In the early stages, there were no specialized educational institutions, and future nurses learned skills from their mothers or other women of the same profession, or were the hospitals themselves involved in the training (“How nursing has changed over time”, 2022). Today, the nursing profession has changed dramatically. There are intensive training programs, a more diversified workforce, and a level of prestige connected with this specialty of medicine that did not previously exist. The evolution of the profession has changed the scope of practice and approach to the treatment of the individual, expanding the duties and responsibilities of nurses and making them one of the key actors in the entire healthcare system.
Even two hundred years ago, nursing was limited to household activities in a medical setting. Maintaining order in the room and keeping accurate notes for doctors was critical (“How nursing has changed over time”, 2022). Nursing has grown over time from being a basic caregiver and housework to requiring genuine clinical expertise and medical understanding. Nurses now have a lot more responsibility, which is why this is such a rapidly growing field of medicine. The obligations and tasks that today’s nurses face would astound and astonish a nurse from 70 years ago.
One of the fundamental changes has occurred in the training and education system of nurses for practice. Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees are now available to equip students for entry-level nursing professions. There are some significant distinctions between these two nursing degrees. ASN nurses can only give basic nursing care to patients, while BSN nurses can provide more advanced nursing care (Carnevale et al., 2018). BSN nurses have more prospects for advancement and may apply for more employment than ASN nurses. The shift from ASN to BSN marks a step from being a technical RN to a professional RN. With improved knowledge and comprehension of RN specializations and abilities, BSN nurses can have greater decision-making autonomy at work. ASN nurses often concentrate on technical clinical activities and day-to-day care, such as patient monitoring, performing basic procedures, and document updating. BSN nurses can take on leadership, administrative, and management duties in addition to direct patient care, with a stronger emphasis on healthcare efforts in general. Some BSN nurses may go on to work in public health, nursing research, or teaching. BSNs receive more training in managerial and administrative roles compared to ADN nurces.
In practice, nurses of both degrees are versatile and perform a wide range of basic tasks. Nurses with an ASN have similar job responsibilities to nurses with a BSN degree. For example, if a patient is admitted to the unit with complaints of pain, swelling, and impaired mobility in the knee joint, then the ASN nurse can perform several actions. They include collecting medical records and identifying a potential cause, ordering tests, providing instructions to the patient, assisting the doctor in examining the patient, and issuing medicines. BSN, in this patient’s case, has more opportunities to work in the care field. In addition to the same activities as an ASN nurse, the BSN should also check and maintain medical records, provide direct care, inform the patient about diagnosis and treatment, and monitor the patient’s health.
An important part of the activities of the RN BSN nurse is related to applying evidence-based practice to nursing care. This method entails employing the most recent research available to improve patient health and safety (Kim et al., 2020). This strategy is significant because it gives issue solutions and suitable therapies by combining best practices from the most recent medical research with clinical expertise, values, and patient preferences.
Academic preparation of the RN BSN nurse supports its application of evidence-based practice by focusing on preparing nurses for evidence-based practice and thinking. The preparation may include a course on this practice. BSN education emphasizes the research role, nursing leadership, patient advocacy, and contemporary healthcare challenges (Smith & Kennedy, 2020). BSN programs allow nurses to advance with evidence-based practice thinking and clinical reasoning that creates a culture of safety in order to better serve patients, colleagues, and the environment. Evidence-based practice is the optimal means of care. As healthcare and nursing are rapidly changing and continue to evolve, evidenced-based practice will always remain a vital element in providing patients with quality and safe treatment and care.
In addition to evidence-based practice, another important element that contributes to safer and more effective patient outcomes is effective communication and collaboration between nurses and the multidisciplinary team. Effective, accurate, and timely communication is critical for quality health care and is directly connected to health care personnel satisfaction. It is also critical to enhancing patient care quality. These conversations are structured using methods such as “situation, background, assessment, and recommendation.” (Cao et al., 2018). Structured multidisciplinary bedside rounds are also beneficial for interdisciplinary communication (SIBR). This enables multidisciplinary communication while bringing together the numerous healthcare experts involved in patient care at the bedside, with an emphasis on patient and family engagement. This connection with the medical staff allows everyone to ask questions and voice concerns on an equal basis, which is one of the hallmarks of a robust hospital safety culture. In an interdisciplinary team, communication between a nurse and a physician is equally critical since it promotes favorable patient outcomes (Cao et al., 2018). Essential for this communication is the involvement of different professionals, their activity, and the confidence to ask questions and make suggestions that can improve the experience. The capacity of interdisciplinary specialists to collaborate in real-time improves overall hospital quality scores.
Nursing contributes to society in many ways, from individual care to family and community care, by promoting, preserving, and restoring optimal health and quality of life. This area is dynamic and constantly changing and developing. Therefore, it is important for nurses to constantly self-improve, be interested in discoveries and innovations in nursing, and also effectively apply the evidence-based practice. In addition, effective communication and collaboration with an interdisciplinary team also contribute to being a successful and professional nurse. All these elements allow achieving not only career growth but also making a significant contribution to creating a healthy society.
References
Cao, V., Tan, L. D., Horn, F., Bland, D., Giri, P., Maken, K. & Nguyen, H. B. (2018). Patient-centered structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds in the medical ICU. Critical care medicine, 46(1), 85-92.
Carnevale, A. P., Smith, N., & Gulish, A. (2018). Nursing: A closer look at workforce opportunities, education and wages. American Journal of Medical Research, 5(1), 29-66.
How nursing has changed over time. (2022). Health eCarreers.
Kim, M. J., Mallory, C., Valerio, T. (2020). Statistics for evidence-based practice in nursing (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Smith, S. B., & Kennedy, S. (2020). Authentic teaching to promote active learning: Redesign of an online RN to BSN evidence-based practice nursing course. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(2), 56-61.