Lifelong Learning is Part of Nursing Practice

Answer

Lifelong Learning is Part of Nursing Practice

            The Institute of Medicine reports that there is a need for greater education among healthcare professionals and also a need for non-stop improvement throughout their career to be able to provide a more competent and innovative care to the patients. This report gave an initiative to hospital institutions to require a higher degree of education (BSN), especially for nurses with ADN degree. The impacts of this initiative are evident at the local and national levels. For instance, some of the hospital institutions that are recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program are not accepting Non-BSN nurses in their entry level positions. Public and community health settings considered BSN the preferred minimum qualification for nurses (Association of Community Health Nursing Educators (ACHNE), 2009). The VA and U.S. military are embracing measures targeted at ensuring that nurses within their respective workforce are highly educated. Besides, the U.S Army, Navy and Air Force issued a policy requiring their present RN’s on duty to acquire Baccalaureate degree to be able to continue working in the institution, as well as the US Public Health Service who are required to have the same qualification for their officers.

            The identified initiative caused a shortage on faculty staff who can teach the students who are intending to enter the higher level of education such as baccalaureate, masters and doctorate level, for reasons such as age and lower salary in addition to the fact that there are no enough facilities that can accommodate these students in the clinical setting. As a result, achieving the goal of reaching 80% nurses with BSN, Master’s and Doctorate degree by 2020 is difficult. According to The Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2010), BSN education for nurses is vital in ensuring better comprehension and experience in quality improvement methods, care management, and systems-level change management in healthcare at local, state, and national levels. Moreover, increasing requirements for BSN entry level will a more even foundation for the reconceptualized responsibilities or roles for nurses and novel care models. For instance, Kovner et al. (2010) established that novel BSN graduates registered significantly higher preparation levels in research skills, evidence-based practice, and gaps assessment in areas such as practice, teamwork, and collaboration.

            Nursing is a lifelong learning wherein you need to integrate all of your knowledge, skill and experience that was gathered throughout your career. There’s always something to learn which will improve and contribute to bringing the best outcome for patient care. Continuing education is a part of the process and we need to be able to adapt to changes that comes along the way. According to Benner (2008), clinical reasoning entails knowing what the specifics of the process are, knowing what to expect from a specific situation and not what to expect which will lead us to our judgement. Lifelong learning and clinical reasoning possess a significant relationship. Luo and Petrini (2018) argue that lifelong learning in nursing provides practitioners with knowledge and skills needed to process information, understand patient situation, plan and roll out interventions, analyze outcomes, and reflect on, as well as learn from the process, thereby improving care quality.