I am aware that the Nursing profession has much to offer in terms of role responsibility and sensitivity to the over-all performance of a medical unit, such as a hospital. In this respect, it is with this professional advancement in mind that I am presently pursuing to further my skills as a nurse, by being master’s prepared and eventually by being a Resource Nurse Clinician. As such, it is my goal to proximate the success of our hospital’s Resource Nurse Clinician, who has also worked as a regular nurse, pursued her dreams and eventually earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing. In this respect, this interview will clarify the many benefits of obtaining an MSN with regards to advancing my professional career, being an educator to aspiring nurses, and contributing to the overall competence of the nursing profession.
Reasons for Aspiring to be Master’s Prepared
The interview with our Resource Nurse Clinician took place in her office. The environment was relaxed that the pre-planned one-hour session progressed into one-and-a-half hours without the both of us noticing the extended time period. Here, it is surprising to learn what she had gone through in order to reach her goals. She shares that she was once a waitress during her teenage years up to her early twenties, and that she worked her way through in obtaining a degree as an Associate Nurse in 1999. This later progressed into a BS degree five years after earning her Associate Degree, and that it was just six years ago, in 2009, when she became master’s prepared. From this general description of our Resource Nurse Clinician’s professional advancement, it is easy to gain faith in believing that any goal can be reached with appropriate planning and action.
Similar with the subject of my interview, I also desire to further my level of competence in my chosen field of expertise, which is nursing. I am aware that this can be most achieved in being a Resource Nurse Clinician, for the reason that the position entails educating aspiring and fellow medical professionals. She enumerates some of her responsibilities in our hospital as such: instructing medical staffs on newly-purchased medical equipments, and updates on certain hospital policy and technical changes recently affirmed by the board of directors. As an addition to these responsibilities, it is also my desire to be an educator to nursing students in a university or a college, which is my own way of giving back to the profession whatever benefits I can attain by being master’s prepared.
Present Professional Role and the Significance of a Master’s Degree
My current professional responsibility as a nurse is comparatively limited to being a bedside nurse in our hospital, with casual occasions of assessing and documenting patients, monitoring nurse’s stations and assisting physicians in several medical procedures. In this regard, it has always been my advocacy to conform to the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocacy, which states that nurses should “firmly believe it is their obligation to help improve societal conditions related healthcare consumer care, health, and wellness” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 27). In this context, as previously mentioned, I know that I can contribute much more to the nursing profession by being master’s prepared, given that my desire to make a difference is not bordered to the profession itself but also the wellbeing of the community.
The completion of a Master’s Degree is very important in attaining my goal of being a Resource Nurse Clinician and a nursing educator. This is true especially when considering the tenet expressed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in earning a Master’s Degree when it states, “This preparation provides graduates with a fuller understanding of the discipline of nursing in order to engage in higher level practice and leadership” (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011, p. 4). More so, by being master’s prepared I can become competent as to meet the demands of the responsibilities inherent in a Resource Nurse Clinician, as explained in earlier paragraphs. Likewise, a Master’s Degree will allow me to educate nursing students into becoming not only highly competent, but more so fostering sensitivity towards social betterment. In this regard, the esteemed nursing professional and educator, Sally Thorne, is correct when she asserts that nursing educators must “believe to our core that the health of the society is shaped by the degree to which it can develop and sustain a knowledgeable nursing workforce” (Thorne, 2006, p. 616). This is true because as nurses we have the obligation provide utmost healthcare to individuals regardless of any cultural segregation—in religious, economic, and even political matters.
Conclusion
Being master’s prepared will benefit me with a higher level of proficiency as a nurse, in the process attaining my professional goal as a Resource Nurse Clinician. Likewise, this post-graduate degree will allow me to gain competence in becoming a nurse educator, which will then allow me to influence would-be nurses into cultivating an advocacy towards social betterment. I believe that these are important in ensuring that the present and the future society will enjoy the benefits of having a truly responsive and proficient healthcare workforce, thus living more meaningful lives especially in times of illnesses and recuperations. In this respect, I learned from my interviewee that methodical planning and appropriate courses of action are very important in aspiring to reach my goal as a master’s prepared nurse, and that a Resource Nurse Clinician has to exhibit leadership qualities in ascertaining that every member of the healthcare team truly understands the innovations acquired by their respective hospitals. Hence, my interview subject has shown me the academic track that I have to traverse and just like her, I intend to succeed through hard work and dedication, and somehow contribute to the nursing profession.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011). The essentials of Master’s education in nursing.
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association.
Thorne, S.E. (2006). Nursing education: Key issues for the 21st century. Nurse Education Today, 26, 614-621.
