Introduction
The professional organizations and associations in nursing plays a crucial role towards promoting advanced and better health care. They’re charged with the responsibility to generate the energy, organization of ideas, and pre-emptive work required to sustain a healthy profession that promotes the needs and preferences of the nursing profession, nurses, and the patients. The associations improves the trust of society concerning health care matters. The paper will shed light on defining the scope of professional organizations in nursing, examine the scope, discuss the trending issues, and offer an analysis of the future of the nursing profession.
Define the scope of the issue
The role of professional organizations in nursing has grown immensely in the recent days. It is clear that nursing as a profession is transforming, and it will continue to do so. On a basic assumption, the role of professional organizations is dynamic and will remain active in the process of advancement. The professional organizations in nursing are concerned with two things: nursing and nurses. Moreover, there are three major components of the professional organizations in nursing; the roles, professional organization, and advancement.
The roles
The role is commonly expressed concerning the gratification of a cluster of functions by the individual or group. In a nursing setup, the role of the organization is diverse. It comprises of negotiation, coordination, change-agent, and education amongst others.
Advancement
In advancement, there are three concepts: preservation, adaption, and initiation. In preservation, the greater values portrayed in the traditional system are retained. Examples of change that have been preserved include the use of medicinal herbs, breastfeeding, and home care for chronically ill patients. Specific to the nursing professionals, the organizations have played a key role in promoting and retaining humanization of patient care. Advancement also deals with the adaption to change and the initiation or facilitation of change.
In nursing, the organizations and associations are important for producing the energy, proactive work, and flow of ideas required to sustain a healthy profession that supports the needs of its clients and nurses, and the trust within the society.
Examine the scope of the issue
The professional organizations in nursing are charged with numerous responsibilities. For instance, the American Nurses Association (ANA) represents the all-inclusive registered nurse population. The professional organizations are dedicated to guaranteeing an adequate supply of the most competent and well-educated nurses (The American Nurses Association, 2016). The organizations play a significant role towards their commitment to meeting the needs of the nursing professionals, and the healthcare consumers (Matthews 2012). For example, the American Nurses Association advances the profession by nurturing high standards in the nursing profession and endorsing the economic and the universal welfare of nurses at the job place. Besides it protrudes an active and a holistic view of nursing, and urging the government bodies and or health care agencies to consider the issues that affect nurses and the public.
The professional organizations in nursing are always at a pole position in policy making and implementation in health care. They emphasize on a reorganized and advanced health care system that offers primary health care services to the population. Furthermore, the professional organizations in nursing give a priority to the expanded roles and functions for registered nurses and unconventional practice in the delivery of health care services (Matthews, 2012).Nonetheless, the organizations are in the frontline to advocate for the allocation of more funds and resources to support nursing education and training. On a general point of view, the roles of the professional organizations are to assist in inducing a positive change and expand the health care environment.
In addition, professional organizations in nursing also consist of political and legislative agendas. The organizations have taken steady positions on a variety of issues. The ANA, for instance, has played a crucial role in health care reforms like Medicare, rights of patients, suitable staffing, the significance of safer needle devices, and suitable reimbursement for health care services amongst others. These professional organizations lobby’s efforts leading to health care reforms at the local and national levels (The American Nurses Association, 2016).
Professional nursing organizations are also engaged in advocacy activities. In the real sense, advocacy is the foundation of nursing. According to Mathews (2012), the advocacy of these organizations is inspired by moral and ethical principles that pursue to influence policies by persuading the political, economic, and social systems and institutions, to allocate more resources that automatically improves nursing and healthcare at large. The professional organizations are focused on advocating for the nursing profession and all registered nurses (Matthews, 2012).
As elucidated above, professional nursing organizations define the scope and standards of practice in the profession. These organizations describe the scope of the nursing practice, and later outlines the standards of the practice and associated competencies. By far, the organizations monitors all practices in the nursing field to ensure quality in care delivery.
Positions or trends associated with the professional organizations in nursing
Evidence-based practice
Holleman et.al, (2006) posits that the professional organizations in nursing play an essential role towards the enactment and achievement of evidence-based practice. In the process, the organizations have an objective to enhance and improve the education of nurses. In addition, these associations also focus on building professional networks that represent the nursing and the nursing profession interests. Moreover, the associations convince the government and the policymakers to allocate funds for improved health care. In evidence-based practice, the professional organizations aim at supporting and protecting the value of nurses at all costs (Holleman et.al, 2006). Although the precise role of these organizations towards evidence-based practice is yet uncertain, it is obvious that the associations are burning the midnight oil to expand nursing services offered as well as devise effective strategies that will be essential towards promoting evidence-based practice amid members.
A study conducted by Holleman et.al, (2006) indicated that “sixty nursing associations pronounced the propagation of evidence-based practice using one or more activities (179 activities in total).” In the listed activities, most of them had a voluntary nature with a principal focus (132/179 activities) on nurses’ intrinsic motivation. More precisely, these activities focused on the competencies and attitudes of nurses connected to evidence-based practice.
The professional organizations in nursing are on the go of supporting evidence-based practice among the profession. The most successful associations have addressed the issue of intrinsic motivation by paying attention to changing competencies and nurse attitudes. The issue of evidence-based practice also requires the associations to implement behavior-oriented approaches that will assess the quality and success of care.
Evidence-based practice in nursing revolves around the integration and synthesis of the perfect research evidence using clinical expertise and client’s values with the objective to optimize health care delivery services to patients (Matthews, 2012). The majority of the nursing professional organizations believes in the following essential elements of evidence-based practice; patient preference and values, clinical expertise, and best research evidence. To identify the presence of evidence-based process, the professional organizations in nursing focuses on asking clinical questions, acquire the best research literature, critically appraise the evidence, incorporate the evidence with clinical expertise and patient preferences, and lastly assess the outcomes of the decision.
Accreditation and certification
The professional organizations in nursing play a crucial role in accreditation and certification. They aim at creating a unified platform that defines the nursing scope of practice. The organizations have already put it crystal clear that the demonstrations of competence at the nursing field are compulsory (Krapohl et.al, 2010). Therefore, the associations ensure that nurses undergo education hours to improve their skills and competencies. As a result, the qualified ones enjoys the chance to acquire the certifications. To maintain the nursing certifications after approval, the professional organizations requires nurses to stick to the best practices and offer the best services in all personal responsibilities.
Moreover, the accreditation ensures only the highly qualified nurses are given a chance to treat and take care of patients. The professional associations come up with the best plan that boosts the operations in the nursing field. The accreditation and certification by the professional associations are carried out with an objective of promoting excellence in nursing and health care at large. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that the associations comprise of credentialing programs across the globe. These programs assist them in the process or certification and recognition of individual nurses in the practice areas. Krapohl et.al, (2010) asserts that nursing organizations have the mandate and power to withdraw the practicing license from the nurses or organizations that breach the code of conduct and practice in nursing. Therefore, these organizations promotes safety, constructive work environments, and also goes ahead to accredit current and ongoing nursing education organizations. The credentialing programs are important since they only recognize qualified nurses who meet the expected standards. The patients and the community at large benefit from attaining anticipated health outcomes and this means a healthy, and productive life.
Legal issues
The legal issues related to nursing is litigation. The subject of litigation is associated with negligence where the nurses fail to devote a certain degree of care that a sound and diligent nurse would perform under the same situations. The professional organizations in nursing come in to solve or present ideas that will be helpful in solving the legal issues in nursing and for the nurses. Furthermore, the practices exclusion and commission will also expose the nurse to litigation and professional certification and analysis (Fontaine, Hudak, & Gallo, 2005). Nonetheless, the acts of professional certification and litigation can trigger the rebuke of a nurse certification.
The corrective initiatives can be susceptible to litigation due to the correctional victims’ populace that possesses a constitutional liberty to health care. For instance, the inmate-patients face nurses than any other kind of health service professional. In the contemporary world, the prisoners enjoy the accessibility to proper health care by either submitting a filled form to the relevant health authorities. The failure to adhere to the concept of offering inmates the access to health care that can seriously meet their health needs and wants can result in facing the tough laws related to the issue at hand.
Nonetheless, understaffing is another legal issue faced by nurses in different departments. The mass has easy accessibility to the data and information based on the inadequate staffing intensities in the health care arena. The problem is that the public may employ these data to file cases in the absence of other systematic complications. Many organizational feel that they would perceive the failure of the health care devotion emanating from the insufficient nursing intensities as the platforms for criminal and civil suits by the various acts. Additionally, in the last few years, the health care services have experienced constant and continuous law suits based on the decreased staffing levels. The topics based on these cases emphasizes on the poor nursing care that results in injuries among the patients and demise. Apparently, on most occasions, the bench of judges offer large parcels of land to the patient’s families. Hence, this issues has justified being an expensive affair for the health care authorities (National Commission on Correctional Health Care, 2011).
Future of professional nursing organizations
The professional organizations in nursing have a great role to play in the future. We all know that nursing care has improved but still, a lot has to be done because of the increasing complexities of the current healthcare system. In the future, the professional organizations will take a new responsibility in promoting the new dimension concerning the leadership role in the nursing department. Off late, there have been numerous reports that indicate the elements and recommendations that must be integrated into the nursing profession to advance it further. The most critical step is the support of the evidence-based practice. In the near future, the professional organizations will expand the services offered in the nursing field through implementing effective strategies that are essential in improving care delivery and accessibility.
Nurses have a great potential in contributing towards the advancement of health services through the development of heath policies. With the empowerment of nurses, global aspects in nursing will be addressed and the general quality of services will be significantly improved. Professional organizations for nurses will continue promoting professionalism and contentment, which is likely to significantly influence their health delivery. Additionally, these organizations will continue promoting the quality of organizational health by advancing the training for nurses with respect to emerging technologies in the health sector. Active involvement of the nurses in the alignment of health policies will create a systematic approach in facilitating health facilities. The federal government has a role of promoting quality health by ensuring proper coordination between the management, health delivery, and training of the nurses. By promoting the coordination between the nurses, government bodies, and training; professional organizations for nurses will reduce inconveniences in the health sector.
Professional health organizations also have a role to facilitate proactive development on healthcare provision. Over the past, health organizations have been responding to emerging health issues, however, with the advancement in health policies, the professional organizations will facilitate the mitigation of certain epidemics (Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2009). Empowering nurses offers the health sector with a significant opportunity to address emergent issues and to eradicate deadly diseases. Concisely, the professional organizations will coordinate all the sectors that affect nurses, which will improve the quality of services, promote health development, and enhance job satisfaction among nurses. The involvement of nurses in policy development will also enhance coordination in all the health sectors and create a viable response to the current and emergent issues in nursing.
Besides, future research is essential for the nursing related professional organizations to establish the policy providences and to assess the effectiveness of the tactics employed to politically associate with the nurses. The nurses are recognized to have a great likelihood to result in the progress of the health policy and principles via political action. The health policy practices that these organizations can associate with the nurses are policy aims and objectives, policy products and the modes of associating nurses in the policy subjects.
In conclusion, the health care regulatory agencies set the institutional standards for authorized quality health care professionals. Nonetheless, these organizations should provide the stipulated guidelines and protocols to achieve quality care and better results. The nursing professional organizations are seeks to set authoritative standards that stresses the duties and responsibilities for which the health services providers are responsible. They feel that these standards should signify the norms and priorities of the professional and offer a glimpse for professional nursing activities and a conceptual framework for the assessment of this practice. These organizations view that there should be definitions for the nursing professional’s responsibility to the masses and the results for which the registered nurses are accountable.
References
Buerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D., & Auerbach, D. I. (2009). The future of the nursing workforce in the United States: Data, trends and implications. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Fontaine, D. K., Hudak, C. M., & Gallo, B. M. (2005). Critical care nursing: a holistic approach (Vol. 1). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Holleman, G., Eliens, A., Van Vliet, M., & Van Achterberg, T. (2006). Promotion of evidence‐based practice by professional nursing associations: literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53(6), 702-709.
Krapohl, G., Manojlovich, M., Redman, R., & Zhang, L. (2010). Nursing specialty certification and nursing-sensitive patient outcomes in the intensive care unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 19(6), 490-498.
Matthews, J. (2012). Role of professional organizations in advocating for the nursing profession. Online J Issues Nurs, 17(3).
National Commission on Correctional Health Care. (2011). Ethical and Legal Issues | National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Retrieved from http://www.ncchc.org/cnp-ethical-legal
The American Nurses Association. (2016). Professional Standards. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/nursingstandards
