Running head: CONTEMPORARY NURSING PRACTICE 1

Contemporary Nursing Practice

Rose Joseph

Grand Canyon University

April 25, 2020

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Contemporary Nursing Practice

Nursing is recognized as the profession that intends to provide care and treatment to

the ill ones. Nursing practitioners (NPs) are now more independent, trained and capable

enough to serve people in need. The current assignment talks about the evolution nursing

field and nurses’ role over time. Moreover, it also intends to make comparison between

associate and baccalaureate education. Lastly, it also places emphasis on how BSN‐prepared

and ADN nurses take decisions while also shedding light on the significance of evidence‐

based practice for the field of nursing.

Evolution of Nursing and its Scope

Field of nursing has evolved with the technological development and with the passage

of time. To begin with, initially, nursing was a career for mainly females, where they usually

assisted doctors and physicians; however, today, nursing is regarded as a highly-specialized

field[ CITATION McC16 \l 2057 ]. More respect is given to the nurses now. Proceeding ahead,

approximately 50 years ago, nurses were only taught how to behave with doctors while now

in this modern era, nurses are provided with more formalized trainings and certifications

related to the health sciences. For instance, in the United States, nurses have to pass the

national exam conducted by National Council of State Boards of Nursing in order to acquire

license for practice. Furthermore, several new technical fields of nursing have now emerged,

for instance, psychiatric and forensic nursing[ CITATION Lyn10 \l 2057 ].

Since, field of nursing has changed over time hence, its scope has also changed.

Nurses are now not only considered responsible for providing care to the patients but now

they also tend to make diagnosis (Fairman et al., 2011). Moreover, they are also now capable

enough to prescribe certain medications to the patients. Nursing Practitioner’s prescriptive

authority varies from country to country and state to state. For instance, in Alabama, NP is
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allowed to prescribe medicines from Schedule II and Schedule III to the patient after getting

training for 12 months under a licensed doctor[ CITATION Adv171 \l 2057 ].

Comparison between Associate and Baccalaureate Nursing Education

According to The American Nurses Association, competency in actual is “an expected

level of performance that integrates knowledge skills, ability and judgment,”[ CITATION Ame18

\l 2057 ]. Although, both ADN and BSN nursing education tend to provide knowledge,

learning and skills regarding the patient care yet certain basic differences exist between their

competencies. Firstly, an ADN degree provides technical education while a BSN degree

provides more complex and professional education[ CITATION Mat16 \l 2057 ]. An associate

degree mainly places emphasis on incorporating technical skills into the NPs while a

bachelor’s degree focuses on several dimensions including research, clinical training,

leadership and management. A BSN degree-that is usually acquired in four years-focuses on

providing detailed information regarding the social and economic problems that tend to

influence the health of people living in a particular region.

Usually both BSN and ADN graduates-working as registered nurses- almost have

same responsibilities. Firstly, they have to take care of patients. Moreover, they are also

supposed to administer the dosages of medicines given to the patients. RNs also update as

well as monitor the symptoms of patients. However, scope of both degrees also differ in

certain terms. Firstly, ADN graduates usually work in clinical settings while BSN graduates

can perform management and leadership tasks also. Moreover, BSN graduates usually has

more knowledge, and so can work at hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and research

organizations at comparatively higher salary than AND graduates (Crigger et al., 2009).
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Differences in Decision-making Approaches

A pregnant patient admitted into labor room has come for delivery; however,

currently she is having high blood pressure. A licensed nurse has been called for the

treatment. An ADN graduate nurse comes into the labor room and monitors her medical

situation and blood pressure readings. Based on the patient’s current situation, she prescribes

her medication because an ADN nurse is trained in a limited way. She only knows technical

knowledge like monitoring and prescribing medications. However, when BSN graduate

comes into the labor room, she observes patient. Since, a BSN nurse gets a multidimensional

training hence, she understands that patient is in stress. BSN nurse asked patient if she was in

stress. Latter said yes. She said she is in stress due to her labor pain and certain family related

problems. A pain killer would work for her. Hence, BSN gave her a pain killer and some

comfortable environment. After some time her BP became normal-without any particular

medication for BP alleviation.

Significance of Applying Evidence-based Practice (EBP)

Application of EBP to nursing care plays quite a significant role in improving patient

outcomes. It provides nurses with authentic knowledge and new treatments for patient care-

gained through the research. Nurses can implement the newly learnt interventions- from the

researches-in order to treat the diagnosed illnesses of their patients, ultimately increasing the

probability of latter’s recovery[ CITATION You01 \l 2057 ]. Evidence-based practice also enable

NPs to learn risk assessment as well as management of different treatments [ CITATION

Sch162 \l 2057 ].

RN-BSN nurses during their course work learn the implementation of EBP models. A

BSN graduate tends to treat his/her patients with the recently “validated interventions.”

Moreover, during studies, BSN nurses learn regarding EBP that further empowers them to

decide treatment plans that would ultimately improve their patients’ outcomes [ CITATION
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OhE10 \l 2057 ]. Furthermore, a RN-BSN is also trained to use his/her critical skills,

knowledge and training to scrutinize a particular research conducted in the genre of medical

sciences in order to assess if its results could be implemented to promote patient care or

not[ CITATION Ort16 \l 2057 ].

Communication and Collaboration

Nurses communicate and collaborate effectively with the interdisciplinary teams.

Firstly, they regularly monitor update the patient’s symptoms chart so that no important

information is missed by the physician or specialist in his/her absence. Proceeding ahead,

nurses stay in touch with the doctors [ CITATION Gau15 \l 2057 ] . For instance, in case if a nurse

observes symptoms of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) in a patient, he/she would

immediately call a gastroenterologist. Moving ahead, regular meetings are also conducted in

hospitals in order to discuss a patient’s health progress and recent diagnosis. Effective

communication and collaboration tends to improve patient outcomes by minimizing the

probability of occurrence of medical errors[ CITATION Lyn11 \l 2057 ] . Effective

communication eliminates issues like misinterpretation of situation and information and

unclear telephonic conversations. Moreover, it also promotes quality healthcare by allowing

nurses and hospital staff to keep patients’ information updated[ CITATION Mor17 \l 2057 ].
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References

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Crigger, N., Barnes, K., Junko, A., Rahal, S., & Sheek, C. (2009). Nurse practitioners’

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