Nursing Competencies in the Health Industry in the United States - Thesis Example

Nursing Competencies The United s faces tough challenges in the healthcare industry, driven by an ageing population and lasting impacts of terminal illnesses. The industry has to change with these challenges and so does the nursing profession. Key changes are already being witnessed as nursing practitioners continue to adopt more and bigger roles. In the adoption of these roles, various organizations have found it necessary to support them academically and professionally through giving the m the competencies they need to face the challenges of the industry. This paper is focused on the discussion of some of these competencies as offered by tree organizations, namely: American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), Quality, Safety Education for Nursing (QSEN), and the National League for Nursing (NLN). The challenges in the industry will also be discussed alongside a personal reflection of the author on the relevance of these competencies to his personal career. Nursing Competencies Introduction Nursing is a critical profession in the United States and, as has been dictated by the increasing healthcare needs, advancements in it are paramount. Advancements in the profession are of equal importance, all in an effort to empower nurses and help in meeting the rising healthcare needs across the country. As such, there are many stakeholders and public agencies that focus on the achievement of this goal by providing the skills that nurses need throughout their academic and professional lives. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), Quality, Safety Education for Nursing (QSEN), and the National League for Nursing (NLN) are primary contributors in this. These three associations have made unique efforts in trying to equip nurses with specific competencies at the Masters level. In addition to these competencies, this paper will discuss some of the factors in the nursing profession and the health care system that make the achievement of these skills necessary, based on evidence from current literature. From a personal and reflective point of view, this paper will also discuss how these skills and competencies related to my career trajectory and describe the steps I am willing to take in an effort to achieve the knowledge and skills necessary during my graduate studies as I seek to master each of these competencies. Discussion of Competencies The AACN has outlined a number of competencies that it is willing to equip nurses with in an effort to enhance their skills. Of the many competencies that it defines under Adult- Gerontology Acute Care NP Competencies, one of the most important is classified as Health Promotion, Health Protection, Disease Prevention, and Treatment. This is a specific competency that is meant to be acquired by adult-gerontology acute care NP (ACNP). An ACNP is charged with the responsibility of the assessment of the personal status of health of a patient. This involves the assessment of healthcare needs associated with health protection, promotion, and disease prevention of patients suffering from acute, critical, or even chronic conditions (AACN, 2012). There are three groups of activities that are carried out by an ACNP who is charged with these responsibilities, all of which have to end with a patient that is personally satisfied with the patient care provided, of course, depending on the specific needs of each patient. The groups into which the roles of the ACNP are divided can be looked in three major phases, the first of which involves the assessment of the patient’s health status. There are many smaller activities involved in this phase. One of the most critical steps that ACNPs should perform in the assessment process of patients suffering from acute, critical, or even chronic conditions is to use data, based on both technology and the physiological status of the patient, in the analysis of the seriousness of the threat facing the patient. This may necessitate an analysis of the patient history in order to understand the complexity of the threat. The second phase involves diagnosis. ACNPs, in this stage, are charged with the responsibility of diagnosing the health status of the patient through the evaluation of all physiological details in an effort to determine the extent of the patient’s instability as they move to the establishment of a care plan (AACN, 2012). At this stage, the ACNP is supposed to develop a care plan for the patient and implement it accordingly, based on the specific needs of the patient. Sometimes the critical and acute conditions may necessitate the development and implementation of end-of-life care plans. Another association that has been involved in the facilitation of the process of acquiring skills and competencies for the nursing profession is Quality, Safety Education for Nursing (QSEN). QSEN has outlined a set of competencies with which it seeks to arm nurses. One of the fundamental competencies that QSEN seeks to succeed in is referred to as Patient-Centered Care. QSEN continues to call upon individuals, organizations, and various interest groups to help nursing professionals not only to acquire this competency but also to use it efficient in different quarters, including families, local communities, and healthcare institutions. The association has different resources that help it in driving the acquisition of this competency, with one of the most important, as outlined on the QSEN website, being the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The IHI has initiated different programs for the Patient-Centered Care competency. One of them is referred to as Always Events Getting Started Kit, which is a foundation that the institute has established, aimed at creating partnerships between nursing practitioners and patients, as well as their families. This is meant to enhance patient experience and the overall quality of care. This foundation has been initiated alongside Campaign Zero, which is also aimed at transforming not only the lives of families but also those of their patients. The initiative has three major objectives, including prevention of deaths and harm that can be caused by preventable errors, lower medical costs for all, and transform people’s attitudes out of litigation and to problem-solving. These are all skills that nursing practitioners can acquire, thanks to QSEN and the programs mentioned above. QSEN also has other organization, with which it partners, another one of which is Partner Health, which is also focused on the enhancement of Patient-Centered Care in collaboration with practitioners in the context of families and the engagement of patients. Other institutes that make their contributions include the ‘Institute of Patient-Family-Centered Care, the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Health Care and Patient Partnership Institute’ (QSEN, 2014). Among other things, the National League for Nursing (NLN) focuses on the quality of education that nursing practitioners receive and the quality delivered by nursing educators. In this regard, NLN came up with nursing educator competencies, with one of the most widely recognized being the Certified Nursing Educator (CNE) Examination (NLN, 2013). This examination is meant to mark an academic and professional distinction in nursing education and practice, which is a huge effort in appreciating the specialty. It is also meant to recognize the specialized skills and professional capabilities that nursing practitioners acquire while at eth same time enhancing the overall core competencies of all practitioners. This is a great move towards enhancing the quality of education, as well as nursing practice. Factors Shaping Competencies Across America, as it is across the world, there is increasing pressure mounting on healthcare systems, necessitating increasing efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with this pressure. Part of this increasing efficiency and effectiveness will have to be accomplished by the leaders of the healthcare systems – the healthcare practitioners, without which the goals will not be realized. In the United States, the health care industry looks to serve an ever-aging population, and a huge rise in chronic illnesses, and increasing health care costs (Rowland, 2012). With these challenges, it automatically becomes important for healthcare practitioners and their relevant organizations and authorities to shape up to the state of affairs in an effort to meet increasing needs of an increasing number of patients. Having understood the changes that have come to affect the healthcare industry, this section finds it necessary to discuss the details of the various factors that continue to bring about the need to have nursing practitioners with the skills that have been discussed in the previous section. One of the factors that necessitate the acquisition of these skills within the nursing profession and the healthcare industry is the aging population. The US has seen possibly the largest percentage of its overall population being composed of people above the age of 65 (Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, May 2014). It is universally agreeable that, as the older population continues to increase, so will their healthcare needs and the healthcare needs of the overall population will rise. The baby boomers are aging fast and will soon have the largest part of the overall population. This will have an increase in demand for medical services as a key result. At eth same time, managers in healthcare settings will be older and will need new sets of skills to ensure that they practice effective management. As has bene mentioned above, one of the competencies that are offered to nursing practitioners as a skill to equip them for future challenges is referred as Adult- Gerontology Acute Care NP Competencies, which not only takes care of young adults but also for older ones. This is an indication that the healthcare system is shaping up towards delivering better services to the increasingly aging population. It is also necessary to note that nursing practitioners may find it difficult to reach out to this old population, owing to long-term sicknesses associated with the elderly as well as disabilities, not to mention their limited mobility. This is why the industry finds it important to engage in the development of positive relationships with them and their families through the application of competencies such as Patient-Centered Care. One would also wish to note that this is the same population that is worst affected by chronic diseases, such as diabetes, depression, dementia, and heart disease among others that continue to affect the old (Hanson, et al., 2014). As such, it is important to shape the most important part of the healthcare system – the practitioners, in an effort to deal with these challenges. This can only be accomplished through arming them with the skills and competencies they need to deal with aggravating problems. Having mentioned chronic diseases, one would add that obesity is a growing disease across the country. What worries many the most is that is it also affecting the young, even young children. This is a challenge that has to be understood and examined from different angles because its cause is complicated, with impacts ranging from the food industry to socioeconomic factors to demography (Nestle, 2013). The people with the best shoes for the mud are the nurses, since they not only have the professional knowledge to gather information but they also have access to people affected by obesity, as compared to medical doctors and other higher-rated professionals. As they gather information, the will need to engage in partnerships with organizations such as the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ). Therefore, it is important to enhance their competencies and skills to contain the problem before it spirals out of control – with more responsibilities they will need more and better skills. As an additional factor leading to the rising need for more competencies for the nursing practitioners, this analysis has also noted that there are unwavering changes in organizational settings. Many current organizations in the healthcare industry are adopting less centralized administrative approaches and, instead, opting for integrated ones (Viitala, 2014). This will bring about the need for nursing practitioners to have innovative skills and adopt leadership positions in an effort to better take charge in the delivery of quality services. Leadership qualities can be acquired as nurses continue to bigger responsibilities, such as diagnosis and treatment, as opposed to just acting as assistants to medical doctors. Application of Competencies Throughout this discussion, I, as a professional in the nursing discipline, have come to engage in a reflective process in an effort to analyze the ways in which the competencies I have discussed above and the factors driving their use can be of help to my career trajectory. In the process, I have come to find a number of competencies and skills that will be of great help in my career as well as I continue to study. Speaking of studying, this analysis has led to my understanding of some goals that I need to accomplish in an effort to become a competent professional nurse, something I have not before. For instance, with the discussion of the above competencies, I have come to realize the need to acquire them, but more importantly, how I will acquire them. This has created great academic and professional focus in me as a professional and a student and, I would conclude that my goals are streamlined with the learning process, which should not have an end in this profession. With this understanding I have come to reflect upon the competencies that I have mentioned above and found out how I personally resonate with them and how they can facilitate my success in the healthcare industry. I chose to discuss the Health Promotion, Health Protection, Disease Prevention, and Treatment competency in Adult- Gerontology because it brings in a more intricate picture of the entire nursing professional to my mind in ways I did not previously think of. As a nursing learner, I took my primary responsibility as to take care of a patient in the very literal meaning. In other words, I thought that, as a nurse, I only have to be an assistant to physicians, without actual medical responsibilities. However, this mindset has shifted towards a more responsible nurse, how can not only treat but can also help in the prevention and protection of a patient’s health and engage in various ways to promote health. This, it emerges, does not only involve the medical or clinical skills and competencies that I need to be in possession of prior to the completion of my graduate studies. In this regard, it involves a more prolific approach to dealing with patients, which involve understanding then not only as patients but also as persons, and dealing with them as such. Having understood this, I realize that it is of extreme necessity to seek an understanding of other skills and competencies outside clinical operations, such as the skills to manage patients and relate to them positively at the personal level, not to mention the need to learn how to productively involve their families. Speaking of relating with patients and families, I have learned a great deal from the Patient-Centered Care competency. I have come to understand that this competency requires interpersonal and communication skills, which will come into play as I interact with patients and their families and in different settings, including hospitals, homes, and local communities. This will necessitate the development of better communication skills that will help me interact better with families and their patients, which will also be an incessant learning process in an out of college. I am also ready to fit in the currently very dynamic professional settings, with different organizational cultures and administrative structures, in which I will fit better thanks to these competencies. Conclusion This paper has identified three key competencies that are offered by the three associations mentioned in the introduction. These competencies have emerged as key drivers of growth in the health industry in the United States. As part of every nursing practitioner, it is important to have these competencies in an effort to confront rising changes in the industry. These challenges have been the primary driver of the need to integrate the competencies discussed here into the nursing profession because nursing practitioners will have increasingly more responsibilities, which necessitates their acquisition of these skills. References AACN. (2012). Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Competencies, AACN. Washington, DC : American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Hanson, L., Haynes, L. K., Turiano, L., Wesseling, C., & Crowe, J. (2014). CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE IN CENTRAL AMERICA: THE BIG PICTURE/WESSELING ET AL. RESPOND. American Journal of Public Health 104.7, E9-E10. Nestle, M. (2013). Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Los Angeles: University of California Press. NLN. (2013). Certification for Nurse Educators. Retrieved Feb 19, 2015, from National League for Nursing : http://www.nln.org/certification/index.htm Ortman, J., Velkoff, V., & Hogan, H. (May 2014). An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United States. Population Estimates and Projections, 1-26. QSEN. (2014). Patient-Centered Care. Retrieved Feb 19, 2015, from QSEN: http://qsen.org/competencies/patient-centered-care-resources/ Rowland, D. T. (2012). Population Aging: The Transformation of Societies. New York: Springer Science & Business Media. Viitala, R. (2014). Leadership in transformation: a longitudinal study in a nursing organization. Journal of Health Organization and Management 28.5, 618-602. Read More