The AACN Essential 2 prepares nurses to become promoters of quality care. It is done by engaging leadership, decision-making, coordination, accountability, and knowledge concerning the various organizational systems (Bender, Connelly & Brown, 2013). In actual fact, becoming an agent of quality promotion within different care settings requires a sound understanding of the various organizational systems. In general, the healthcare system is composed of sub-systems that influence different organizational components in a collaborative manner ultimately influencing the quality of care. Various sub-systems such as politics, power, policies and regulations also inflict a huge impact on the quality of care provided. As a matter of fact, the effectiveness of the care provision process is basically tethered to all these systems. As a nurse, it is imperative to understand the interplay between these complex systems and how they impact care. By the virtue of their expertise and nature of roles, nurses interact with the care provision system and hence understand the care systems more than any other group of healthcare providers (Bender, Connelly & Brown, 2013). This places them at a vantage point in terms of fine-tuning the interplay between these components thereby facilitating the achievement of desirable patient and care outcomes.
In this regard, nurses are mandated to understand the care process itself and how the multiple systems of healthcare such as guidelines, policies, management and power affect the care process. As such, it is core to the nursing role to influence the development of policies and guidelines for ensuring that they are strategically positioned to address quality pitfalls (Van Soeren et al., 2011). Furthermore, the success of the nursing process and likewise, care provision, relies on the role of management in terms of organizational policies and resource allocation. In this connection, there is accentuation for nurses through advocacy to influence managerial decisions such that they are aligned to the quality promotion objectives and goals.
As far as my personal experience is concerned, I was fortunate enough to assist a preceptor who significantly helped me understand complex situations, how to handle them, and how never to compromise the provision of quality care in any given situation. I also learnt the smart and appropriate usage of critical thinking skills for the resolution of challenges that may incur. Thus, it was a great experience to understand the criticality of nursing position and how to act as the patients’ advocate.
References
Bender, M., Connelly, C. D., & Brown, C. (2013). Interdisciplinary collaboration: The role of the clinical nurse leader. Journal of nursing management, 21(1), 165-174.
Van Soeren, M., Hurlock-Chorostecki, C., & Reeves, S. (2011). The role of nurse practitioners in hospital settings: Implications for interprofessional practice. Journal of interprofessional care, 25(4), 245-251.
