Core Competencies in Healthcare - Essay Example

CORE COMPETENCIES Module Introduction Nursing is an exigent occupation. It is knowledge based and competence assessed profession. Nurses perform a vital role in the endorsement, protection and restitution of health. Therefore, it is necessary to grow competent nurses because competent and educated nurses can offer enduring and lifetime holistic results, endorse health, boost the quality of human life and in short, enables creature development (Hall et al, 2008). Core Competencies of Clinical Nurses: Clinical nurses does not mean the nurses who serve in clinic or hospitals but clinical nurses mainly defines, the nurses who are direct in contact with the patients by providing them health care and resolving their health care issues. Clinical nurses are registered nurses. Clinical nurses are specialized nurses in their field of nursing practices because they hold masters or doctoral degree in the specialized area of nursing (De et al. 2008). This nursing specialization may be fall into certain categories for instance, Rehabilitation or psychiatric Critical care or emergency room Geriatrics, pediatrics or women’s health Diabetes or oncology etc. Clinical nurses or registered nurses must possess knowledge, skills and attitude to carry out the health care functions effectively (Bryant et al, 2004). Nurse Practitioner: Nurse Practitioners come under clinical nurses. They are advanced practice registered nurses. They serve as advocate of patients. They lead their entire life for the provision of quality life to the people who are suffering from any disease or who may have any other health care issue. These health care issues may vary from toddlers to adults. Nursing practitioners have the authority to work independently because they are trained and qualified in their respected domains. Five roles of nurse practitioners described by strong model includes specialized leadership, publication, education, evidence based work, direct comprehensive health care and support of system (Bryant et al, 2004). Core Competencies of Non-clinical Positions: Non-clinical nurses are those who are not involve in treating the health care issues of patients. It involves, nurse educators, nurse administrator or other administrative roles who build the bridge between the practitioners and patients. Non-clinical positions are those who work behind the scene yet, they have a vital role in the health care industry and they are responsible for providing successful management skills (Cattini and Knowles, 1999). Nurse Educators: There are several roles performed by the nurse educators in the clinical settings but the most important responsibility is to develop the staff clinically and professionally. Nursing educators are required to develop the better health care practitioners for patients. Nurse educators stimulate the personal and professional skills of nurse practitioners. They are not directly involved in the counseling of patient but they ensure the quality of health care delivering. Other responsibilities include assistance in the formulation and development of policies and procedures based on the research evidences, acting as an information source and advocate and facilitate others. There are certain challenges faced by nurse educators in the health care industry. These challenges include, managing work load, managing expertise and visibility (Cattini and Knowles, 1999). Nurse Administrator: It is yet another non-clinical position. It is focused on management concerns therefore, it is also known as nursing management. Nurse administrator performs the leadership function in the health care industry. Here the leadership involves the basics of it such as planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling (De et al. 2008). They are responsible for carrying out all the management responsibilities in the health care industry. Nurse administrators are well educated and trained in managing the nursing procedures and protocols. They serve as crucial leaders in an organization. Their job duties include, structuring team practices and employees counseling, developing and supervising nursing staff, financing and stabilizing standard policies, assessing nursing performance and their diagnosis dealings (Hall et al, 2008). Advanced Roles of Clinical Nursing: A framework consisting of five main drivers regarding advanced nursing practice roles was proposed in order to better facilitate the health care system. These five main drivers were consist of population, education, work force, practice procedures and legal and health guidelines. (De et al, 2008). According to the study, the health care basic requirement of the population is the chief key element to the success path in health care innovation. Advanced clinical nurses should adopt innovative ways for curing the disease, patient is suffering from. There are many new models of health care system in the literature in order to develop the advanced role of clinical nursing (Cattini and Knowles, 1999). Advanced Roles of Non Clinical Positions: There are many roles of nurse educators but the most essential of them is to develop efficient and professional heath care staff. Nurse educators work as a broker between the patient and the health care provider. There are several roles of nurse administrator such as, executive nurses, shift nurse, chief nurses and matron. Nurse executive is responsible for carrying out the management functions within the nursing units. Charge nurses are usually shift nurses who are at permanent position but serving their services in different shifts. The nurses working in military hospitals are called matrons (Hall et al, 2008). Conclusion: Nursing is an exigent occupation. It is knowledge based and competence assessed profession. Nurses perform a vital role in the endorsement, protection and restitution of health. Clinical nurses are registered nurses. Clinical nurses are specialized nurses in their field of nursing practices because they hold masters or doctoral degree in the specialized area of nursing. Non-clinical positions are those who work behind the scene yet, they have a vital role in the health care industry and they are responsible for providing successful management skills. Nurse practitioners come under clinical nurses. They are advanced practice registered nurses. They lead their entire life for the provision of quality life to the people who are suffering from any disease or who may have any other health care issue. These health care issues may vary from infants to adults. There are several roles performed by the nurse educators in the clinical settings but the most important responsibility is to develop the staff clinically and professionally. Nursing educators are required to develop the better health practitioner for patients. Nurse educators stimulate the personal and professional skills of nurse practitioners. They are not directly involved in the counseling of patient but they ensure the quality of health care delivering. Therefore, it is concluded that clinical nurse and non-clinical are equally distributed in the success of health care industry. However, by reviewing literature it has suggested that clinical nurses must possess some the core competencies for instance, leadership, professionalism, evidences based work, system based practice, quality improvement to promote health care industry. References Top of Form Cattini, P., & Knowles, V. (September 01, 1999). Core competencies for Clinical Nurse Specialists: a usable framework. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 8, 5, 505-511. Bottom of Form Top of Form Hall, L. W., Moore, S. M., & Barnsteiner, J. H. (January 01, 2008). Quality and nursing: moving from a concept to a core competency. Urologic Nursing, 28, 6, 417-25. Bottom of Form Top of Form De, G. S., Moons, P., Callens, B., Gut, C., Lindpaintner, L., & Spirig, R. (January 01, 2008). Review article - Introducing advanced practice nurses / nurse practitioners in health care systems: A framework for reflection and analysis. Swiss Medical Weekly,138, 43, 621. Bottom of Form Top of Form Bryant-Lukosius, D., DiCenso, A., Browne, G., & Pinelli, J. (December 01, 2004). Advanced practice nursing roles: development, implementation and evaluation. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 48, 5, 519-529. Bottom of Form Read More