Effects of Higher Education in Nursing Regarding Patient Care
In any field of life, a person with advanced knowledge is more beneficial for that field than the average. Better educated person has the skill set to tackle more complex problems. This is exactly why education, especially higher education, is important in nursing. Nurses do not deal with minimum standard protocol every day. Sometimes the patient’s cases are too complicated and the time taken for a physician to arrive at the patient’s bed can mean the difference between life and death. In the meantime, the patient is under nurses’ care. Nurses with higher education can better assist the physician and contribute better to patient care.
This essay builds upon the argument by understanding the nursing duties and theory of patient care. Nurses with more knowledge and skills can better take care of the patients. They have the skill set to the specific condition of patients and their needs. Nurses with higher education have sound scientific reasoning to back their opinions and actions. It is in the interest of the patients to have more knowledgeable nurses taking care of them.
Highly educated nurses mean less workload on doctors. Simple processes can be left to nurses, so the doctors can attend to more complicated cases. However, if the nurses have only minimum acceptable knowledge in patient care the physicians and surgeons cannot delegate duties that might compromise a patient’s health. It is, therefore, advised to have well-educated nurses that understand the working of the human body, and the nature of diseases and injuries. Having a better knowledge of the medication will also give the nurses additional autonomy to provide patient care with confidence.
Sometimes patients in critical condition arrive at hospitals and even a minor error can be life threatening. When nurses have to make difficult medical decisions in a matter of seconds, advanced medical knowledge benefits them and saves patient’s lives. Not all critical cases are the same. A patient might arrive at the hospital with massive bleeding, or hypothermia, or broken bones etc. These are emergency cases and the attending nurses need to be aware of the treatment that is clinically advised. Nursing or patient care is a broad field and there are many complications that a patient can have. It would be extremely unprofessional if a nurse does not know how to respond to a situation if it lies outside nurse’s knowledge base. For this reason, the nurses need to broaden their knowledge and skill to better serve the patients.
A study was conducted to test this theory, whether nurses with higher education provide better patient care or not. It was found that healthcare facilities with the higher percentage of registered nurses (RN) with baccalaureate or higher education had lower congestive heart failure mortality (Blegen, Goode, Park, Vaughn and Spetz, 2013). These hospitals also had lower rates of decubitus ulcers and pulmonary embolism, while the average length of stay of patients was also shorter (Blegen, Goode, Park, Vaughn and Spetz, 2013).
Similarly, another survey was conducted on nurses asking them the factors that they think would improve patient care. It revealed that clinically competent nurses were their top recommendation (Kieft, de Brouwer, Francke, & Delnoij, 2014). Among other suggestions were better to work cooperation, more autonomy for nurses, and a sufficient number of staff available for patients (Kieft, de Brouwer, Francke, & Delnoij, 2014).
A change in perspective or a better understanding of what nursing truly means will also support the claim that nurses with higher education better serve the healthcare industry. People generally think that nursing only means wiping, cleaning and administering. This way of thinking does not support the notion of investing time and money into nursing education. However, the reality is different from this perceived notion.
Nursing duties go far beyond the bedside patient care. Nursing jobs require critical thinking and prompt decision making that would not be possible without sufficient medical knowledge. It is not only recommended to have nurses with better education but in certain cases it becomes necessary to have nurses that have the skillset to deal with complicated problems. For example, a case of a broken arm might need immediate attention for an on-duty nurse. A physician might not be present at the moment. It will be the nurse’s judgment call regarding the first aid. The nurse will need to utilize critical thinking to care for the patient.
Nurses have a duty to act. How much they intervene with patient’s condition depends on their clinical knowledge, experience and legal capacity to act. Moreover, a nurse with better education is less likely to make mistakes that might otherwise occur based on blindly following a protocol instead of understanding the science behind it. It is an essential part of the nursing job to be present for the human response.
Nurses are supposed to respond to patient’s conditions, needs and wants. The more they are familiar with the illness the better their response. Also, they are also required to diagnose treatment and medicine under certain circumstances. The patient will also be more comfortable being taken care of by an educated nurse instead of a person with a minimum acceptable education.
Higher education in nursing is not just a suggestion, it is a requirement. More competent nurses with the better understanding of medicine and patient care better equipped to handle patients. It must be noted that nurses have multiple roles to play in their profession. They need to be good at psychology to better communicate with patients and understand their wants. They must also be good at mathematics and statistics to better understand medicinal dosage, reading charts and basic calculation. They must also be good in communication and languages and sociology. The language and communication go being oral communication with patients. Nurses are supposed to report and communicate in written form as well. Concise, accurate and informative reports that fulfill the medical protocol nurses help the process of providing patient care better.
The last evidence in support of the claim is to know the job duties of nurses. It has been discussed that the job of nurses goes beyond wiping, cleaning and fetching physicians to examine the patient. Nurses, take care of wounds, prepare patients for surgeries, administer medicines and teach the patients to administer medications such as insulin (Finkelman and Kenner, 2013). Beyond these duties nurses also take part in advocating; they might participate on behalf of individuals, patients and families advocating a course of action or a change in policy (Finkelman and Kenner, 2013). It does not take much consideration to understand how important it is for a nurse to be advocating for something only after critically evaluating the options.
References
Blegen, M. A., Goode, C. J., Park, S. H., Vaughn, T., & Spetz, J. (2013). Baccalaureate education in nursing and patient outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(2), 89-94. www.aahs.org//wp/Baccalaureate-Education-in-Nursing-and-Patient-Outcomes.pdf
Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2013). Professional nursing concepts. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Kieft, R. A., de Brouwer, B. B., Francke, A. L., & Delnoij, D. M. (2014). How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 14(1), 1. http://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-14-249
