The Need for Uniformity in Nursing Information and Education
As a third semester nursing student at Saddleback College, I have become increasingly aware of the disparities that exist between the various resources, textbooks, and information provided to nursing students. The disparities are at times minimally variant; at others, astoundingly so. The fact is troubling given its implications in patient care and how such discrepancies may potentially impact the health and wellbeing of those we care for. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address the discrepancies that exist in nursing information and education, and to delineate through use of evidence based practice how such disparities portend negative consequences, most notably: errors, …show more content…
This being the case, it is paramount that the information and education each nurse receives, regardless of the learning institution or textbooks approved for study, present uniformity and cohesiveness. Furthermore, Josephsen pointed out, “If graduating nurses are presented with a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that meets the need for competent and critically reflexive nurses, the discipline of nursing can continue to expand in function and voice” (Josephsen, 2014). Such cohesiveness necessitates that uniformity of education exist in all aspects of classroom and clinical settings.
Dr. Carrie Lenburg delineated the problem of lack of uniformity in information and education in her article The Framework, Concepts and Methods of the Competency Outcomes and Performance Assessment (COPA) Model. She stated, rather profoundly, that “The historical use of individual, subjective and inconsistent methods and lack of established conceptual frameworks perpetuates the problems in both education and practice settings,” (Lenburg, n.d.). Such problems are complex and include myriad potentially negative outcomes, including errors in nursing practice and inadequate patient …show more content…
Such matters are addressed in Assessing the nursing error rate and related factors from the view of nursing staff, a medical journal published in the US National Library of Medicine. The article states, “It should be noted that errors not only lead to damage and mortality for the patients, but also they are one of the obvious and costly problems in the hospitals” (Eslamian et al., 2010). There are likewise other implications which impact nurses in a more specific and profound way. Ronda Hughes, a senior health scientist administrator for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality who authored the book Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses notes that, “When care falls short of standards…nurses shoulder much of the responsibility” (Hughes, 2011). Given the above facts, it should incentivize and behoove nursing bodies and educational establishments alike to collaborate in the formation of uniform, standardized information and education so that disparities between sources and subsequent potentially devastating errors are
As a third semester nursing student at Saddleback College, I have become increasingly aware of the disparities that exist between the various resources, textbooks, and information provided to nursing students. The disparities are at times minimally variant; at others, astoundingly so. The fact is troubling given its implications in patient care and how such discrepancies may potentially impact the health and wellbeing of those we care for. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address the discrepancies that exist in nursing information and education, and to delineate through use of evidence based practice how such disparities portend negative consequences, most notably: errors, …show more content…
This being the case, it is paramount that the information and education each nurse receives, regardless of the learning institution or textbooks approved for study, present uniformity and cohesiveness. Furthermore, Josephsen pointed out, “If graduating nurses are presented with a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that meets the need for competent and critically reflexive nurses, the discipline of nursing can continue to expand in function and voice” (Josephsen, 2014). Such cohesiveness necessitates that uniformity of education exist in all aspects of classroom and clinical settings.
Dr. Carrie Lenburg delineated the problem of lack of uniformity in information and education in her article The Framework, Concepts and Methods of the Competency Outcomes and Performance Assessment (COPA) Model. She stated, rather profoundly, that “The historical use of individual, subjective and inconsistent methods and lack of established conceptual frameworks perpetuates the problems in both education and practice settings,” (Lenburg, n.d.). Such problems are complex and include myriad potentially negative outcomes, including errors in nursing practice and inadequate patient …show more content…
Such matters are addressed in Assessing the nursing error rate and related factors from the view of nursing staff, a medical journal published in the US National Library of Medicine. The article states, “It should be noted that errors not only lead to damage and mortality for the patients, but also they are one of the obvious and costly problems in the hospitals” (Eslamian et al., 2010). There are likewise other implications which impact nurses in a more specific and profound way. Ronda Hughes, a senior health scientist administrator for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality who authored the book Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses notes that, “When care falls short of standards…nurses shoulder much of the responsibility” (Hughes, 2011). Given the above facts, it should incentivize and behoove nursing bodies and educational establishments alike to collaborate in the formation of uniform, standardized information and education so that disparities between sources and subsequent potentially devastating errors are