Tag: nursing

The Nursing Baccalaureate Program

Nursing is one of the most in demand profession in the country today, and is expected to rise more in the coming years. This makes the profession more appealing; the higher the demand, the better chances of employment. The baccalaureate program offers courses that prepare the student to become a professional nurse.

The program is composed of classes and trainings that best prepare the students to handle medical care, treatment and support to patients. The students will learn the basic nursing care, fundamentals, theories, medicines, terms etc. At some point of the curriculum, the nursing student will be exposed in an actual situation. Wherein they will learn how it the real scenario looks like; this is done to better prepare the student before they graduate. Once the student satisfies the requirements, they will be qualified to take the examination for licensure to practice as a registered nurse.

The objective of the BSN program is to prepare graduates to work as professional nurses in a number of scenarios. Graduates are envisioned as having acquired fundamentals for ongoing professional development. Nurses are expected to be fully equipped once they graduate; there’s no more time to practice once the nurse is on duty. The patient’s recovery and safety depends on how the nurse handles the treatments and medications.

The curriculum is developed to assist the student to develop skills, stimulate intellectual curiosity and also to develop the capability to work with other health workers. The professional nurse is dedicated to the function of maintaining health insurance and ensuring the quality of health care services. The nursing school plays an important role in preparing the nurse to become well-equipped with skills and knowledge needed for efficiency.

Nursing Challenges: Stress

Nurses face different challenges daily, not just in the hospital but in their personal life as well. Nursing is actually a career with lots of challenges. Nurses are confronted with emotional and professional demands that lots of people can’t even imagine. Taking responsibility for the wellness of people’s lives is a big challenge for individuals employed in healthcare. There have been numerous enhancements to controlling most of the physical perils of the nursing care. Good examples include universal safeguards and safety practices. However, there are concerning hazards to some nurse’s mental and emotional health.

Stress is associated with people working in the hospital. It may be the emotional and physical reaction experienced when a person is put in a situation he or she is not capable of handling. Nurses face different types of patients with different kinds of health conditions. These put so much stress on them while doing their own routine.

Signs and symptoms of stress include fatigue, disrupted sleep programs, high blood pressure and pulse, appetite loss or overeating, muscle tension, decreased libido, utilization of alcohol or drugs, irritability, eagerness, sadness, poor concentration, anxiety, worry, ambivalence, memory lapses, and lack of spontaneity. Physical results of stress may include cardiovascular disease, stroke, immune disorders, putting on weight, weight reduction, intestinal problems, diabetes, discomfort, headaches, fertility issues, allergic reactions, skin conditions, hair thinning, periodontal disease, and much more.

Stress could be handled in a number of ways in which can result in enhanced overall health and wellness for people employed in healthcare. Though the career has so many challenges, it’s still a satisfying profession which has a profound and positive impact on many people’s lives.

Importance of NLNAC to Nursing Programs

Choosing a nursing school is an integral part of your career. There are a lot of considerations to take into account, like the distance of the school from where you live and the cost of the program. One thing to consider is the accreditation of the nursing school. Nursing, like some professions, has more than one accrediting agency. The university is either accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) or the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

Let’s get to know the background of this accreditation agency. NLNAC was first created in 1893. When the new Higher Education Act made some changes in the accrediting requirements and processes, the NLNAC was not able to comply. This made way to the entrance of the CCNE in 1998. There are people who favor the NLNAC accreditation because it supports a larger mixture of institutional missions and therefore provides greater opportunities for students. Some say that it had an explicit standard addressing a program’s integrity, which the CCNE lacked. Having an accreditation basically controls the profession’s quality and standards. They are referred as gatekeepers to quality. Through accreditation, students will be guided on what program or school to choose, determining the more dominant program and the more competitive. The two accrediting agencies have their own focus and standards.  Both have their pros and cons, but helps improve the quality and effectiveness of a nursing school.

Accreditation is very imperative for the forthcoming nursing student when choosing an entry-level nursing program. In the U.S., all nursing schools must have a license and an approval from the state where it is located. There are certain requirements that must be met by the school to be accredited. Whatever accreditation the school will use, it will enhance the quality of its nursing program which will create more competitive nurses.

 

Nursing Home Quality

Many reports have published information on the quality of care administered by nursing homes. This includes data on resident and family satisfaction and care outcomes. Information regarding a nursing home must be reviewed if you know that a family member needs nursing home care. Of course, we need to be sure that the facility is secure and the services they offer are above standard. You can also visit nursing homes yourself to check it or ask friends and family for their thoughts and experiences.

There are agencies that monitor and check nursing homes regularly. The Office of Facilities Regulation examines nursing homes to guarantee that they follow state and federal standards. You can contact them to learn more about a facility’s inspection results and recommendations.

The Healthcare Quality Reporting Program issues reports comparing the quality of care provided by different nursing homes in the state. Use the reports to learn about the outcomes that resident at different nursing homes experience and how often they get health conditions that good care may prevent.

Learn what residents and families say about their experiences with nursing homes by viewing satisfaction survey results. You may have heard horror stories about the quality of nursing home care. However, there are good nursing homes as well as bad ones. The nursing home should be hygienic and well maintained. A bad smell may indicate the staff is too busy to help residents to the bathroom or to change clothes. Rooms and public areas should be comfortable. The dining room and kitchen should be clean, and the food should be hot and appetizing or else their patients will lose weight due to lack of appetite.

Another thing, find out how the nursing home complies with the state and federal government regulations such as patient/staff ratio and training. Notice how staff members treat residents. Your choice will be a big factor to the health of your family member. Make sure you make the right decision and to continually monitor their program.

Why Choose Nursing Education?

When you are pursuing college, you will have many options on what career you will take. You could become an engineer, a chef, an attorney, a photographer etc., depending on what field you most likely see yourself in the future. But if you want to have a career in the health care field, then you could enter a field that has become desperate for candidates: nursing.

Nursing is an excellent choice for any students who are interested in health care. Opportunities are growing for nurses faster than qualified individuals can fill the openings, which virtually ensure your employment once you graduate. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nursing is the fastest growing profession in the economy. There is also a projected shortage for nurses, currently and in the years to come. The estimates of the U.S. Healthcare Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) state that the country will need several hundred thousand more nurses by year 2020. This shows how important nurses will be and how large the opportunity is for them.

Nursing is a noble profession and it positively affects individuals in the community. When you are a nurse, you have the opportunity to provide care for infants, children, adults and elders to avoid or prevent diseases or to help patients recover from their illnesses. Nurses actually compose most of the healthcare work force and have diverse work settings.

Nurses can either work on hospitals, heath clinics, care facilities, home health agencies, or schools. Advancing your studies is possible in nursing. You can pursue nursing education at the graduate levels to advance your skills and earn more knowledge. Salaries are not an issue for nurses. Due to the accuracy and the efforts offered by nurses, they need proper compensation. The growing need for nurses also helps in the increase of nurses’ salary. But, for nurses who work for the love of the services they rendered, salary is just a bonus.

National League for Nursing Academy Class of 2014

The National League for Nurses has chosen twenty nurse educators as the eight class of fellows. They were all endorsed for induction into the prestigious Academy of Nursing Education. There were also two nurse educators who were named as honorary fellows, this is the category for nurses who have dedicated their life in educating nurses, those who retired from service, and those who have made a significant contributions and honor to nursing education. The induction ceremony will be held during the 2014 Education Summit on September 14 Friday evening at the NLN Banquet. This will be witnessed by the 187 nurse leaders in nursing education, health care professionals and other guests from other institutions.

The review panel of the Academy of Nursing Education has to consider a vast number of things, like background, records, affiliations, etc of the prospected nurse fellow. One of their criteria will be the applicants’ contributions and efforts towards innovative teaching/learning strategies; nursing education research; faculty training and development activities; leadership in the academe; being active in promoting the improvement of health care system or being able to collaborate with institutions and other partners towards the advancement of the nursing education.

The Academy of Nursing Education was established in 2007 by the NLN in the year 2007 with the hopes of creating excellence in nursing education by focusing on the wisdom and skills of the nursing educators. The Chief Executive Officer of the NLN Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, explained that the fellows will support the mission and the core values of the NLN and will assist in the work required to prepare graduates from the different types of nursing programs. The fellows will be the mentors of the next generation of nurse educators and for those in the clinical practice who wants to be a part of a nursing faculty.

 

Considering a Nursing Home

A nursing home is a provider of custodial care for older people who can no longer take care of themselves. They differ from other senior housing facilities since they provide a much higher level of medical care. Assistance with feeding, bathing, and dressing are part of the services they offer as well as physical and speech therapy. Some nursing homes are designed to look and feel like home, which makes the mood more at ease and won’t make the elderly feel like a patient.

It may be painful to send a family member to a nursing home, it is still the best option to ensure the safety, health maintenance and as well as practicality. Most nursing homes provide residents with nursing aides and skilled nurses who will who will be on hand 24 hours a day.

So when should you consider sending your family member to a nursing home? Here are some of the things you need to ask yourself before making a decision:

Is your family member can no longer take care of himself?  If yes, then it would be risky to leave him alone at home when everybody’s at work or at school. Most of the elderly became forgetful, like wandering and forgot the way back or leave a stove that may lead to a disaster. Bringing him to a nursing home where nurses can provide him basic services will then be an option.

Are there any family members who are available to take care of him? In some situations when the need for a nursing home is just temporary, family members can rotate care or hire a health worker who can work part-time when it is needed.

Are you ready to be separated? It would be hard to send him away when you are used to living with him. But you can visit him anytime at the nursing home whenever you have a free time.

Is the nursing home you know can provide his needs? The senior’s medical needs must be provided and a 24-hour supervision is must. The center must also have programs and conducts activities that will keep the elderly active and healthy.

Basic RN Classes

There are many Universities that now offer web based programs or have a distance studying program for certain degrees. Learning management systems would also be a good spot to look as they have an extensive selection of programs that cover all careers and degrees. You can complete a lot of your studying or studying online, however, you must be present for your clinicals. With nursing, it needs not only a lot of knowledge, but also practice routine. You are not going to understand how to successfully do everyday tasks such as putting in an IV to a person if you don’t actually practice on a person. However, you can get a lot of your RN classes out of the way by completing them online. Do some research, check out what schools offer distance learning programs or what other online schools have the RN classes necessary to help you complete your training.

To become an RN, you only need a 2-year Online Degree in Nursing (ASN). There are also ‘fast-track’ programs that will allow you to produce your LPN degree in about 10-12 months, but they will load the work on you during that interval. A lot of the LPNs usually work in assisted living facilities or physician offices. Pay ranges are going to be based on your experience, the shift that you like and the setting in which you want to work.

Most programs offer RN-BSN programs solely so RN’s are able to work and go to school. But to get your main RN licensure, you must have a certain number of hours of classroom times to do the RN classes and you also have to work a certain clinical site (where you work in a hospital or long term care service while attending school). This is done to make sure that you successfully pass your tests, since a lot of them are hands-on.

National League for Nursing Leading the Way

America’s 3 million nurses are enjoying their leadership positions in health care during the 2014 National Nurses Week, from May 6-12. The week concluded on the birthday celebration of Florence Nightingale, a recognized leader in the profession. Not every health professional will become an international trailblazer for the profession, but every health professional has an opportunity to advertise quality patient care and take care of growing issues within the profession, that shows leadership. And that’s why this year’s concept, selected by the American Nurses Association, is Nurses Leading the Way.

“I am so pleased this is the concept,” said Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN and CEO of the National League for Nursing. There are many different ways nurses lead: from navigating sufferers from the bedside to back home and changing guidelines within their companies to providing on boards and forming policy, the National League for Nursing CEO also stated. “With more than 3 million nursing staff on the front-lines of medical care, we are critical to enhancing our nation’s health and are providing leadership to address many difficulties such as the increasing number of people with serious disease conditions and enhancing medical care results while reducing cost,” added Debra L. Fowler, PhD, MBA, RN, CNE, associate professor of nursing systems and track director of MSN in nursing leadership and administration at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing. Nurses provide leadership to their sufferers by supporting them to improve their individual wellness and cause their health professional co-workers by using evidence-based exercise, Fowler outlined.

“We need to be leaders in evidence-based practice and medical care change,” said Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor in the College of Nursing and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University in Columbus. “In particular, we need to be leading the health marketing and prevention paradigm throughout the United States.”

Programs Teaching Fundamentals of Nursing

If you are among those who find satisfaction in helping and looking after people, then nursing is the best suited profession for you. There is a great demand for nursing staff in the health care sector that can look after sick patients. These days, nursing staff are not only limited to medical centers, but they are equally in demand at treatment centers, voluntary organizations, pharmaceutical companies, hospices, jails, residential areas etc. Nursing is a growing profession with no signs of saturation or decrease. Hence, the first step to start a profession in patient care is to get registered in a college of nursing. There are many universities, colleges and community colleges that provide programs on nursing for learners desperate to learn basic skills and fundamentals of nursing.

However, the qualifications for an individual to engage in a diploma or a degree in nursing are only after finishing secondary school. Once registered in the course, an individual is taught the basics of human anatomy, physiology, biology, other primary principles, nursing skills and ideas to handle sufferers properly. The fundamentals of nursing include the basic and important jobs of a CNA in the healthcare industry. These primary responsibilities are activities of everyday life like bathing, cleansing, grooming, dressing, ambulation, exercising, feeding etc. Apart from correct diagnosis and medications, the recovery of an individual also depends on the type of care and support he gets from the hospital staff. Hence, it is necessary to know and carry out the fundamentals of nursing process and practice efficiently. Most of the training programs accomplish direct placement to people who qualify with good grades.

A degree program in nursing is generally of three to four years long. This program is separated into two parts. One part of the training is done in classes where learners are introduced to the fundamentals of nursing. This is called the Common Foundation Program. While the other aspect concentrates on the working experience and is performed in medical centers or medical organizations. After studying the primary principles in nursing, an individual is needed to choose his/her field of expertise. For example, specializing in psychological health or specializing in learning disabilities or in nursing for children. Those people who opt for a diploma course in nursing spend three years, while those who opt for a degree program in nursing are required to study for four years. However, there are some organizations that offer a degree in nursing in just three years.