Introduction
Nurses nationwide undergo career training programs aimed at giving them knowledge and skills to deal with different types of healthcare problems. Nurses are required to obtain their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in ten years before acquiring a full practicing license. The above degree program plays a significant role in preparing individual nurses for the tasks ahead. It offers an effective educational framework. The healthcare delivery system was introduced by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to focus mainly on patients’ outcomes. All health care professionals have a focus of building safer health care system. The safety of patients is an important aspect in the U.S. health care systems. This paper provides a look at the impact of BSN professional education on patients’ outcomes.
Effect of BSN professional education on patient outcome
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing believes that education creates a significant impact on competencies and knowledge of nurse clinicians and other health care providers (Rosseter, 2014). Nurses possessing BSN degrees are well prepared to meet health care needs of patients today. Nurses need to be totally prepared to deal with different health care problems presented to them by patients today. Many nurse administrators required nurses with adequate knowledge, both practical and theoretical when it comes to dealing with patient issues. Most health care institutions prefer hiring nurses with BSN degrees because they are more prepared to handle different health care cases compared to certificate level nurses.
BSN professional education plays a critical role in increasing patients’ outcomes among registered nurses. Despite the need for further studies to examine nurses’ sensitivity to patients’ outcomes in relation to staffing and presence of adequate equipment, BSN professional education carries the most weight. A health care may have adequate staff members and health care equipment but the lack of appropriate skills causes poor patient outcomes.
BSN professional education enables nurses acquire the necessary information regarding different practices that assist improve patients’ outcomes. Education makes it possible for nurses to use new tools that promote access to quality health care, linking evidence, informatics, and nursing language. According to Swan, Lang, and McGinley (2004), the link between evidence, nursing language, and informatics play a significant role in influencing positive patient outcomes in health care. Acquiring BSN education makes it possible to link the three elements of quality of care and ensure nurses deliver expected health care services at all times. Nursing language, for instance, has a lot of significance in determining patients’ outcomes.
As Elfrink, Bakken, Coenen, McNeil, and Bickford claimed, the use of standardized nursing vocabularies is the primary foundation of quality care (2001). The use of a standardized language in describing the type of care provided helps in improving the quality of health care services offered to patients. The BSN degree program teaches professional nurses how to use different clinical vocabularies and terms. Knowledge of this language makes it possible for nurses to communicate with other nurses from different parts of the world; hence, promoting positive patient outcomes. On the other hand, knowledge of nursing vocabularies increases the quality of care by impacting decision-making processes in health care. Nursing vocabularies are integrated with health care information systems in an effort to develop an international nursing reference terminology. Oncology nurses have an effect on the patient outcome in their practice because they use standardized and documented nursing data made available in all computer-based systems (Elfrink, Bakken, Coenen, McNeil, and Bickford, 2001).
On the other hand, BSN professional education affects patients’ outcomes by increasing nurse-patient interactions, promotion of health care professional issues, and critical thinking. BSN uses unique teaching strategies that prepare nurses for the career ahead. The improvement from Registered Nurse (RN) to BSN professional education had a significant impact on the job performance of nurses. Nurses undertaking BSN professional causes are well placed to deal with emerging health care issues and deliver quality care compared to RNs. Additionally, BSN helps nurses overcome oppression-related attitudes and behaviors that interfere with patients’ outcomes in most health care settings. Witt (1992) performed a research to investigate the liberating effect of RN-to-BSN education. The study aimed at evaluating job performances of nurses with BSN professional education and RNs. Witt claimed that most researchers compare competencies of RN students to generic students ignoring the influence of BSN education on the nursing career. The study findings revealed that BSN education prepares nurses adequately for the career and plays a significant role in promoting quality health care delivery; hence, improved patient outcomes (Witt, 1992).
Conclusion
Quality education helps improve the quality of care offered by nurses in the health care sector. The discussion shows that the introduction of BSN professional education has a significant positive effect on the delivery of care. Patients enjoy quality health care services and the healthcare records minimum complaints from patients. On the other hand, the health care sector does not incur many costs training nurses about new methods of delivering care because BSN education curriculum prepares nurses fully and adequately. Nurses should undertake BSN education in order to achieve health care goals and ensure patients receive the much-needed care and lower costs.
References
Elfrink, V., Bakken, S., Coenen, A., McNeil, B., and Bickford, C. (2001). Standardized nursing
vocabularies: Foundation for quality care. Semin Oncol Nursing, 17(1), 18-23. Retrieved July 13, 2015 from http://www.nursingconsult.com/nursing/journals/0749-2081/full-text?issn=0749-2081&full_text=html&spid=11788221&article_id=486961.
Rosseter, R. J. (January 21,2014). Fact Sheet: The impact of education on nursing practice.
American Association of College of Nursing. Retrieved July 13, 2015 from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/EdImpact.pdf
Swan, B., A., Lang, N., and McGinley, A. (2004). Access to quality care: Links between
evidence, nursing language, and informatics. School of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations. Paper 7. Available July 13, 2015 from: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/nursfp/7
Witt, B. S. (1992). The liberating effects of RN-to-BSN education. Journal of Nursing Education, 31(4), 149-157. Retrieved July 13, 2015 from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/21839118_The_liberating_effects_of_RN-to-BSN_education
