The Education at Nursing Schools - Essay Example

Literature Review The education at nursing schools constitute of generic education which is the initial educational preparation for nursing along with more professional graduate programs and the formal continuing education, learning and staff development roles. The role of nurses as teachers and their importance at management jobs and clinical practice cannot be disregarded. The history of nursing education has been marked by the struggle of nurses for professional identity. Smith (1969) has regarded the environment of earliest nursing schools as pitiful where young women carried the burden of nursing patients without many resources and training and they were also seen to be teaching their younger pupils. According to Reilly (1990), Mary Nutting was one of the nurses who needs to be credited for initiating and conducting research on the nursing education and consequently worked to raise the status of nursing schools In the 1800 Clara Barton helped the wounded soldiers of the Civil War and helped in brining about a more organized and scientific form of nursing education. A more comprehensive and standardized approach of nursing schools emerged in 1900’s. The underlying factors which prompt this change were the high patient mortality rates and the need to control infectious diseases (Reilly, 1990). The weakness of the nursing schools all over the world lies in their lack of standards and homogeneity with other schools in the world. The nursing schools in Philippines, India, and China will need to take stipulation from processes and competencies identified by using different approaches and projects in Europe if they want to be eligible to work across the world (Baumann & Blythe, 2008). The opportunity for the nursery schools lies in building economic and political partnership across various nations with the purpose of developing their own harmonization projects. The educational equivalences in nursing qualification can be synchronized across nations to formulate the standards necessary for promotion of effective nursing education across the world (Baumann & Blythe, 2008). Allen et al. (2006) carried out a study to give insight in to the use of different strategies for issues related to nursing education. The results of the study confirmed the Smith’s perception from the previous era to consult and take in to account the literature from social and biological sciences, mathematics, cybernetics, philosophy, medicine, education and others to make the field of nursing more competent. The nursing specialties, this study concluded can be greatly polished with the help of the literature of these other sciences. The wide scope of the said research will prove to be an asset for nurse researchers and educators, collection development specialists, and database providers. The role of nurses and the nursing schools is very important because nurses makeup a major part of the healthcare industry. The profession of the nurses has wide scope. The perception of the profession of the nurses was changed by Florence Nightingale. The primary goal of a nurse is to provide general good care to the patients and ensure their well being and store them to normalcy. The nursing schools tend to equip nurses with specialized education and training of dealing with different types of ailments, diseases and pain. The training of a nurse at the nursing school imparts education about administration of medicine and monitoring the development. Additionally a nurse learns to read temperature, gauge blood pressure and safeguards the patient from further deterioration of the health. The work of the nurses is not limited to the clinics, hospitals or the dispensaries. Their field of line is extended to homes where elderly or disable people are in need of help. They are also trained to give first aid to patients in travel vans and ambulances. The nurse intervenes to provide relief from ailment, pain or disease to a patient (Krzeminska, 2005). The nursing schools work to equip the nurses with skills and tools to provide health care services in every sector of human life. However the role of nursing services in child rearing can be regarded the most important. The role of a nurse for individual children, their families, the school community and the wider local community cannot be over estimated. The school nurses are specially qualified and trained nurses who exclusively cater to the needs of the children (4-19). The nursing schools ensure the promotion of health at schools by these nurses. They act as advisors on the health issues of the children, parents and the school staff. The school nurses are trained to work in collaboration with the schools to ensure that the children are well aware of health issues like drug abuse and alcohol and sex and relationship education (Thornton, 1991). They act as pillars of support for parents and management in the rearing and development of the children. The school nurse is the key health worker who has a very crucial role to play. The nurse can identify an early problem and reduce the developmental risks of the child. The children are made free to discuss any concern with the nurse. The school nurse refers the child to other professionals and specialists if more help needs to be sought. The crucial arenas where a school nurse has an integral role to play includes; behavioral problems, bullying, emotional support, healthy eating, vision and hearing problems, growth issues, child protection, bed wetting, diabetes and sexual health (Thornton, 1991) . The nursing programs of today have come a long way and have evolved for good. The nursing schools provide a comprehensive educational experience to the learning nurses and help them in becoming skilled professionals who are trained to cope with the challenges of modern times. The graduating nurses are equipped to work in the competitive field of modern medical technology. The professional associations and hospitals organize to impart the continuing nursing education. These institutions are also made use of to renewal license and continue to learn the modern technologies associated with the art of nursing. The National League for Nursing (NLN, 2001) also acknowledged the dire importance of the continued learning of clinical practices and topics by the nurses. NLN also recognized and stated a pilot certification program for nurse educators which comprised of eight core competencies that a nurse should possess (NLN, 2005). Every country has different organizations that supports and runs the nursing education and programs. The education of nursing at the nursing schools has become very wide scope to incorporate hundreds of specialties. These days different colleges, hospitals, vocational and trade schools are offering countless, varying nursing education programs and courses. These organizations are working to advance the education and profession of nursing. The growing need of nurses is calling for more nursing schools to be opened. All over the world, the professionals in the field of nursing are in short supply which has created a demand of nurses in times of today. The Bologna process strives to standardize the education of nursing in the Europe (Zabalegui et al., 2006). Many of the European countries have already made it mandatory to have a three year bachelor’s degree as a criteria to enter and practice while other countries are moving towards this standard (Krzeminska, Belcher, & Hart, 2005; Marrow, 2006). The scope of nursing schools are widening as the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe project works consistently to cooperate and aim to identify nursing competencies at bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels (Gobbi, 2004). The effort to globalize the curricula of nursing is the call of the day. The project of Bologna has been undertaken to identify and construct generic and specific competencies and courses to serve as a nursing school framework all over the world (Zabalegui et al., 2006). It is really difficult to standardize the education of health professionals, specifically of nurses across the world. The main reasons behind this are the population health issues, endemic diseases, social, cultural and economic differences. How ever there is still a need to establish standards for nursing education and assure minimum standards for qualification of nurses (Baumann & Blythe, 2008). References Allen, Margaret. Allison, Melody, Stevens, Sheryl. (2006) Mapping the literature of Nursing Education, Medical Library Association Baumann, Andrea & Blythe, Jennifer (2008), Globalization of Higher Education in Nursing: Trends and Future Directions in Harmonizing Nursing Education Internationally OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 13(2)  Gobbi, M. (2004, June) Tuning educational structures in Europe: A pilot project by and for higher education institutions supported by the European Commission in the framework of the Socrates program, Nursing competencies, Draft as [of] June 2004. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from www.unizar.es/enfez/enfermeria/15092004.pdf Krzeminska Belcher, D., & Hart, B. G. (2005) Perspectives of nursing education in Poland, International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 2(1), 1-5. National League for Nursing [Web document] New York National League for Nursing, 2005 [cited 31 Jul 2005] Position statement: lifelong learning for nursing faculty. [Web document] New York, NY: National League for Nursing, 2001 [cited 31 Jul 2005]. http://www.nln.org/aboutnln/PositionStatements/lifelonglearning01.htm Reilly DE. Research in nursing education: yesterday—today—tomorrow. Nurs Health Care. 1990.  Mar; 11(3):138.–43 Smith KM. Trends in nursing education and the school of nursing librarian. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1969.  Oct; 57(4):362.–7 Thornton, Carol (1991). School nurse role: a comparison of role expectations of school nurses and school personnel. Marquette University Zabalequi, A., Macia, L., Marquez, J., Ricoma, R., Nuin, C., Mariscal, I. et al. (2006). Changes in nursing education in the European Union, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 38(2), 114-118 Read More