The Need for Bachelor Prepared Nurses - Essay Example

Evidently, there are a number of benefits of preparing nurses in this way and therefore society definitely has a need for bachelor prepared nurses. The first important argument for having bachelor prepared nurses is that they may be more capable in dealing with certain patients. This means that people in hospital are less likely to die from preventable causes in the hands of bachelor prepared nurses. Aiken, Clarke, Cheung, Sloane & Silber (2003) found that, in a study of hospitals in Philadeliphia, nurses with a bachelor degree had 5% less patient deaths and failure to rescue incidents than non-bachelor prepared equivalents.

This was found even after adjusting for the different illnesses that the nurses were dealing with. Sasichay-Akkadechanunt, Scalzi, & Jawad (2003) found in their large study of nurses in Thailand that in-hospital deaths were reduced when patients were treated by bachelor prepared nurses. Bachelor prepared nurses may also be more qualified in basic scientific knowledge that can be useful in their career. Thornton (1997) found that nurses who had biological and psychological knowledge from their bachelor degree were more capable and more understanding (as evaluated by co-workers, patients and the nurses themselves).

These nurses were also more qualified in dealing with a wide-range of situations. This may be because nurses who had only received minimal training and had more vocational-style education may have had their experience in one or two hospital areas, and therefore were not familiar with a number of the cases in areas where they did not have training. Bachelor preparation covers a lot of ground. Manias & Bullock (2002) found that bachelor prepared nurses also had a superior knowledge of pharmacology, which is inevitably helpful when dealing with patients who need medication.

Another benefit to having bachelor prepared nurses is that they can often have a better patient manner and be qualified in a number of different areas, not just because of their increased scientific knowledge. White, Coyne & Patel (2001) asked members of the Oncology Nursing Society to specify whether they thought that bachelor prepared nurses were adequate for end-of-life care. Not only did the nurses in the society feel that they had gained enough from their degree that they could apply in this situation, but the general feeling was that patients responded better to these nurses because bachelor preparation includes modules about talking to patients and communication.

Patients often prefer and feel safer with nurses with a good bedside manner, and so this is a huge advantage to have in a nurse. There are suggestions that nurses do not need to study in formal education because their career is so practical and essay writing and research are not often used in the profession (Gurney, Mueller & Price, 1997). Although this claim may have some truth to it, in that it recognizes the nature of the profession, there are suggestions that these research skills can actually be useful to a nurse.

Carroll et al (1997) found that nurses did use research techniques and many used them to find out more about conditions as well as take part in scholarly nursing research. If nurses were only prepared on a vocational basis, they may not have the research skills that a bachelor’