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AACN BSN Essentials

Abigail Harvey (McMahan)

Galen College of Nursing BSN Program

NSG 3100

Ms. Johnson

March 25, 2021

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AACN BSN Essentials

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) guides the education of the

Registered Nurse (RN) through the Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional

Nursing Practice. This paper will describe the AACN educational essentials, their purpose, and

application to the comprehensive educational expectations of the Registered Nurse. The AACN

provides nine essentials to be embodied by the RN upon completion of a Bachelor of Science

degree in Nursing (BSN). The essentials cover many areas, such as liberal education and basic

organizable and systems leadership and quality. Each of the nine essentials is an integral part of

the BSN education and serves as the framework for a curriculum designed to ensure nursing

students meet the end-of-program goals described in each of the nine essentials (AACN, 2008).

Background

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice was

endorsed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 1998). There have been

many reports to the Institute of Medicine, with the desire to build a safer healthcare system. The

American Association of Colleges of Nursing realized there was a need to establish the

Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice Nursing. The essentials

can be identified as having the potential to cause the biggest impact on transforming

healthcare delivery. The goal is a safer, higher quality, more cost-effective system. There is an

increasing awareness of a need for change in the healthcare system. Buerhaus, Staiger,

and Auerbach (2008) reported that the U.S. may experience a shortage of more than

500,000 registered nurses by the year 2025. “Despite annual increases in enrollments in entry-

level baccalaureate nursing programs since 2001” (Fang, Htut, & Bednash, 2008).

These increases are not sufficient to meet the projected demand for nurses. These are the

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reasons the essentials were created. The essentials were developed to ensure the nurses that

enter the field are educated and prepared to enter the workforce.

Purpose

The essentials play a crucial role in baccalaureate nursing education. The essentials

provide curriculum standards and competencies for baccalaureate, master's, and Doctor of

Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees (Murphy, 2020). The AACN works with academic institutions

to help create a highly effective workforce. The AACN emphasizes lifelong learning as a part of

the essentials of nursing practice (Murphy, 2020). Per the AACN Essentials, the ninth essential

explains baccalaureate generalists’ nurses prepare to practice with patients of all ages, across the

healthcare environments. Another role generalists’ nurses have is being learners. They are

focused on developing and perfecting knowledge and skills to manage care. Generalists nurses

will build clinical reasoning, management, and evaluation skills (AACN, 2008).

Overview

In the nine essentials of nursing, there are vital skills to retain from each. First, we will

talk about essentials one through nine. The first essential is called The Liberal Education for

Baccalaureate Generalist Nursing Practice. This is talking about the core classes a graduate must

take before starting the official nursing classes. The classes range across multiple fields of study,

including sciences, cultures, and the arts. The second essential is based on basic organizational

and systems leadership to ensure quality care and patient safety. This essential will prepare a

graduate to excel in critical decision making, be able to identify and participate in complex

system issues, help improve the quality of healthcare delivery and promote safety and quality

outcomes among a diverse population (AACN, 2008).

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The next essential we will talk about is scholarship for evidence-based practice, essential

number three. The baccalaureate program will prepare a student to identify the interrelationships

between theory, practice, and research. They will also show a basic understanding of the research

process while participating and collaborating with other healthcare professionals to improve

patient outcomes. Essential four is about information management and application of patient

care technology. While the world is turning to technology more each day a nursing graduate

must excel in how to properly use monitors, pumps, computer-based devices, and electronic

charting. Healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments are what essentials number

five is all about. It is so important for a nursing graduate to follow healthcare policy to maintain

quality and safety in the workplace. Healthcare policy includes finances and regulatory

procedures, it is important to follow the policy to ensure safety and quality of care is met in the

healthcare setting.

Next, we will talk about the last four essentials number six through nine. Essentials

number six teaches a nursing graduate the interprofessional communication and collaboration for

improving patient health outcomes. Effective communication between fellow staff members,

patients, and patient’s family members is imperative to providing the best most effective care to

the patients. Essentials number seven teaches clinical prevention and population health. This

means that nursing graduates will have the ability to “use evidence-based practices

to guide health teaching, health counseling, screening, outreach,

disease and outbreak investigation, referral, and follow-up throughout the lifespan.” (AACN,

2008 p.24).

Lastly, we will learn about essentials numbers eight and nine. The essentials eight is

about professionalism and professional values a nurse graduate should know about the American
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Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nursing. A nursing graduate is held accountable and

responsible for their actions. Finally, essentials number nine, “recognizes that the integration of

knowledge and skills is critical to practice. Practice occurs across the lifespan and in

the continuum of healthcare environments. The baccalaureate graduate demonstrates clinical

reasoning within the context of patient-centered care to form the basis for nursing practice that

reflects ethical values.” (AACN, 2008 p. 29).

The purpose and value of the critical competencies that are included in the nine essentials

of nursing are to prepare a nursing graduate to enter the workforce. The Essentials were designed

to promote responsible learning and assure the development of competencies that are reliably

demonstrated and transferable across settings. Competency-based education is student-centered

learning. The critical competencies were designed to help students become responsible learners

while assuring the development of reliable and flexible competencies that are transferable across

different settings (AACN, 2020).

Professional Nursing Practice

The AACN essentials discuss the relationships between professional nursing practice

with Historical nursing perspectives and current issues, Implications for nursing practice by

providing patient-centered care, Evidence-based practice as a guide for nursing practice and

clinical decision making, Healthcare systems, and member roles, Improving patient care

outcomes and ensuring a safe care environment through the use of information technology, and

Quality improvement effects on healthcare systems and patient outcomes. We will discuss each

relationship. First, we will discuss historical nursing perspectives and current issues. An example

of a historical nursing perspective that has influenced professional nursing today would be
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Florence Nightingale. She made an undeniable impact on the field of modern nursing in the areas

of infection control, hospital epidemiology, and hospice care (Black, 2017).

The advancements nightingale and many others have made, impacts, and shapes the

practice of nursing today. Nightingale ended up founding the first training school for nurses in

1860 in London which became the model for nursing education in the United States (Black,

2017). Providing patient-centered care was part of how she cared for her patients and we still use

it today. Patient-centered care involves listening, informing, and involving the patient in their

care. Nurses today use patient-centered care by actively listening by using eye contact and

responding to their patients. They will also ensure their patient understands what they are saying

a nurse may do this by using common words instead of medical terminology. Nurses will also

involve their patients in their care. A nurse may ask their preference on when they would like a

bath and will work around their schedule when appropriate.

Next, we will discuss evidence-based practice as a guide for nursing practice and clinical

decision-making. Nurses use evidence as a guide to care for patients. They will use thorough

research projects and experiments to support decisions for treatment. Before using a newer drug

to treat a patient a nurse will look at research studies to be certain this is the proper drug for what

their patient is experiencing. Nurses can also use evidence-based practice by talking to a

colleague. If a nurse is having trouble with something or someone they may ask another nurse if

they have experience treating that illness or a patient with similar symptoms. A nurse may even

ask someone in a different position for help with a clinical decision such as a charge nurse. There

are many different types of healthcare systems and roles within each system. Nursing is a fast-

growing specialty that is constantly evolving in nursing today there are tons of different types of

nurses to name a few. There is a Registered nurse, Cardiac nurse, Clinical nurse specialist,
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critical care nurse, ER nurse, and family practice nurse. There are so many more types of nurses

as well. Nurses can work in a variety of places such as the many different units in a hospital, care

flight, Pediatrician office, insurance agency, nursing homes, surgical centers, schools, and so

many more. Due to the wide range of people nurses care for it is important for healthcare to be

continuously improving and learning better ways to do things.

Improving patient care outcomes and ensuring a safe care environment through the use of

information technology is crucial to the nursing career field. Nurses can continuously learn new

ways of treating patients and keeping a safe environment by keeping up with new research, also

by learning directly from co-workers who have been through an experience and can help show

their co-workers and boss a better way to do things. Who better understands what works best for

nurses than other nurses? The nursing field is full of never-ending education and inventions.

Nurses can come up with ideas that may help improve patient care such as the rotating bed, the

crash cart, color-coded IV lines, and ostomy bags just to name a few. Continuous improvement

of technology and education in the nursing field is crucial to quality improvement effects on

healthcare systems and patient outcomes. Without sharing research studies and working together

to continually educate all nurses the quality of the healthcare system, as well as patient

outcomes, would drop. With the advancements in technology today, Nurses can continually

improve the healthcare environment. Doing so also helps to save more patients' lives, but to

make them more comfortable during their stay in a healthcare facility.

Conclusion

The relationship between the essentials and baccalaureate nursing education. The

essentials can be identified as having the potential to cause the biggest impact on transforming

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healthcare delivery. The goal is a safer, higher quality, more cost-effective system. While the

nursing education will ensure a nurse is educated properly in how to accomplish a safer, high

quality, cost-effective system. Nurses can accomplish these goals after graduation as well

through furthering their education, keeping up to date with new research, and designing better

technology. The AACN Essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice is

intended to prepare a nursing graduate to give top-quality patient care right out of school. They

should be prepared to perform all clinical tasks as well as have the critical thinking skills and the

knowledge that continuous education is of the utmost importance in providing top-quality patient

care.
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References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (1998). The Essentials of Baccalaureate

Education for Professional Nursing Practice. American Association of Colleges of

Nursing. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED433735.pdf

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2008). The Essentials of Baccalaureate

Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Washington, DC: AACN. Available

from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education/pdf/BaccEssentials08.pdf.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2020). The Essentials: Core Competencies for

Professional Nursing Education. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/Downloads/Essentials/Essentials-Draft-

Document.pdf

Black, B. (2017). Professional Nursing: Concepts & Challenges. (8th ed.). Elsevier.

Buerhaus, P., Staiger, D. O., & Auerbach, D. I. (2008). The Future of the Nursing Workforce

in the United States: Data, Trends, and Implications. Boston: Jones

and Bartlett Publishers.

Fang, D., Htut, A., & Bednash, G. (2008). Enrollment and Graduations  in  Baccalaureate

and  Graduate Programs in Nursing. Washington, DC: American Association of

Colleges of Nursing.

 Murphy J. (2020). Transitions to Professional Nursing Practice. Lumen Learning. Available

from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-delhi-professionalnursing.