The quality of provided healthcare and its outcomes are some of the most focused on aspects of the healthcare itself. Therefore, nurses’ actions are subjected to a system of measurements that determine the quality of provided care. The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators proves the link between patient outcomes and nurse staffing levels. Therefore, this database help to effectively and accurately evaluate the nursing quality through reporting structure, process, and outcome indicators.
Nursing Sensitive Indicators reflect and measure the aspects of nursing care such as a supply of nursing staff, levels of education and certifications of nurses (structural); methods of patient assessment and nursing job satisfaction (process); and patient outcomes. The subject of this interview will be the structural indicators, in particular the education and certification of a registered nurse in the nursing home setting.
Registered nurses play one of the most important roles in nursing homes, as they observe and control the activities of other nurses that take care of the daily needs of patients. The aspect of continuing nursing education and how it impacts the performance of nurses will be discussed during the presentation. Education and certification is an important indicator to monitor as it allows registered nurses to not only stay relevant in their practices but also helps students to evaluate their progress to make the process of adaptation to the workplace prompt. The discussion reveals that advanced education enhances patient outcomes because high skilled and educated nurses are more efficient and can handle critical tasks which ordinary and averagely educated nurse practitioners cannot handle.
First, the competencies required for one to become a nurse have grown significantly, thus the reason these professionals need additional education training in areas such as evidence-based practice, system improvements, health policy, leadership skills, geriatrics, and public health. Secondly, medical services in hospitals have grown in complexity, and nurses need to make critical decisions regarding the care for the sick, how to handle frail patients and gain the ability to use sophisticated and life-saving tools (Scott, 2016). Third, nurses will be required to provide primary care. As the population of older people increases, nurses will be needed to help patients in handling chronic illnesses to prevent disease progression and acute care episodes. Fourth, nurses will be required to use complicated information management systems that require analytical skills to improve the effectiveness and quality of care (Scott, 2016).
Lastly, the transition into multidiscipline care groups demands that nurses will work with other health experts, including pharmacists, physical therapists, social workers, and physicians (Backhaus et al., 2015). This situation demands that nurses must continuously learn to increase their competency.
Higher education in nursing increases the competency of a nurse. This can be seen through improved patient outcomes; with more trained nurses, medication errors are reduced, the nursing professionals stay updated on the current trends in nursing, increased efficiency in the use of technology, and it is natural to network and enhances collaboration (Carter & Moore, 2015). The attitude of not continuing with nursing education has detrimental effects both to the affected nurse and to patients. These include lack of collaboration opportunities, limited skills, knowledge, and competency, lack of confidence, poor outcomes in patients, and minimal career opportunities.
The converse is true with higher education (Carter & Moore, 2015). Additionally, continuing education increases the skills of a nurse and equips them with the capacity to handle delicate situations and the ability to lead other nurses. Continuing nursing education has a significant influence on ANA scope and standards of practice (Carter & Moore, 2015). The reason is that continuing nursing education offers the best evidence-based nursing services, enhances higher competency in practice, helps career growth and expansion of knowledge, and improvement of quality of care according to patients.
Another aspect that makes the education and certification indicator an important one is the growing trend of technology application in the nursing field. The quality of healthcare heavily relies on various technological advancements as they aim at making treatment more effective and comfortable for the patient. In addition, the usage of technological advancement allows simplifying the working process of a registered nurse in nursing homes. As the demand for nursing homes grows with the growth of elderly patients, being able to operate with clients’ databases is an essential skill, which can only be gained through specific education.
Technological advances are changing how things are done in the nursing and healthcare field to improve health care services provided to patients and health care outcomes. With these advances in technology, nurses can perform their duties and care for patients more efficiently (Walsh, 2019). The invention of devices such as radio frequency identification enabled devices, tablets, electronic charts, and computers have improved efficiency, and the nursing field has adapted along with these changes.
The introduction of electronic health records (EHR) is changing the paper records system for many health care workers. EHR can alert the nurse on a patient’s potential issues such as allergies or intolerance to a specific medication. The latest technology in data mining and record-keeping will enable nurses and healthcare professionals to offer customized health care plans. Since patient data exists on the EHR, patient care costs will be reduced both for the nurses and patients.
EHRs will also provide valuable information to the researcher to help in the development of new treatments (Banova, 2018). With the help of a centralized system, the entire healthcare industry will be able to identify a viral or bacterial infection, provide information on how it can spread, and come up with preventive measures immediately. However, this kind of technology is prone to hacking which may compromise the patient’s data.
The introduction of telemedicine technology will be useful in cardiovascular healthcare. Monitoring vital signals and symptoms using Telemonitoring technology can now be done remotely. Already, plans to develop remote ultrasound technology are underway. The technology will shorten the patient waiting time, improve access in rural areas and improve efficiency leading to cost savings.
Mobile health will also see more patients receive health care services through the use of mobile technology. Today, over 80% of nurses and health practitioners use mobile phones, and 25% use phones to provide patient care (Banova, 2018). Mobile phones enable health workers to complete tasks in remote areas. Most nurses can now access patients’ EHRs, review the patient’s medical history, and send an email with the full prescription (Banova, 2018). However, mobile phones can be stolen, infected with viruses or malware, or data erased as a result of human error leading to loss of data.
The use of technology in the healthcare sector has today become a normal encounter in global healthcare facilities. Perhaps this has come about as a result of the global growth in information and expertise, as well as due to society’s advancement in science. In the dawn of this, the healthcare sector has not been left behind, as it has equally embraced technology to support life in the provision of healthcare services. For example, the implementation of electronic health records in the sector has been praised for its capability to reduce the traditional medication errors, which were known by nurses in the industry. This follows the fact that EHR technology has the aptitude to provide up-to-date, accurate, and comprehensive information about patients from a mere retrieve of a patient’s bio-data from the EHR’s database. In the process, this guides nurses to make informed decisions while giving care to the patient.
Alternatively, in the study of the benefits of electronic health records, Robins (2016) contends that a primary challenge, which has been causing medication errors in hospitals, has been the issue of illegibility resulting from the poor handwriting which general practitioners are known for. According to a study finding that was retrieved, Robins found out that a particular source of medication errors in hospitals was an effect of poor handwriting, which made the comprehension of medical form information difficult. Therefore, given that electronic health records keep patient information in soft copy, this is a notable area, which can be significantly improved by implementing EHRs,’s in clinical setups.
Applying technology to healthcare provision services and internal operation enhances its quality. As such, one of the most important aspects that are improved by the utilization of technologies is data entry. Accurately entering data is essential for the work of a registered nurse in a nursing home. First, while the number of patients can be high and growing, the data management is significantly simplified by using Electronic Health Records, which are easier to access and monitor.
The traditional nursing practices of administering patients have always been subject to the use of paperwork. However, today the implementation of technology has made it easy to administer healthcare online including prescriptions. This has been possible following the fact that nurses can access information about patients from EHR databases. Hence, the introduction of electronic documentation is significantly relevant in proper workflow and in ensuring satisfactory patient handling.
Nurse education also plays an important role in the nurses’ autonomy. This implies that a professional nurse, as well as a registered nurse in a nursing home, should be able to ensure high-quality healthcare by engaging in reflective and self-assessment practices. Reflective practice is important in the nursing profession since when a practitioner is capable to reflect effectively then they will be able to show care when dealing with the patients through asking for the questions that can help them in making sense of the situation to reflect on.
Understanding the patients’ conditions and at the same time being open to answers, which help in building rapport with the patients. And at the same time using the questions to learn from the past and present circumstances, which helps in better analysis of the existing evidence and deciding on how the problem can be solved in a way to benefit the patient.
Nursing education has embraced the idea of reflection as an important tool in helping nursing students to practice how to reflect and gain some experience, which later helps them in their nursing careers. With the learned reflection practice, nurses can review and improve their professional skills which aid them in the provision of high-quality care and services to their patients and at the same time improve their courage, and communication with the patients (Backhaus et al., 2015). The idea of reflection practice also helps the nursing students in reflecting upon their performance to know and compare what was wrong and what was good; this is a process that helps them to understand how to better their performances in future practices and build their confidence when in the same situation.
Nurses’ self-evaluation process involves carrying out a competency-based analysis of job performance and skill level to facilitate improvements and career growth. A basic self-assessment involves setting job performance and career advancement goals, highlighting the steps taken to achieve the goal, the challenges faced during the process, analyzing the final results, and adjusting the goals depending on the outcome (Carter & Moore, 2015). A self-assessment is an important part of a nursing portfolio because it allows the person to identify areas of improvement and it allows future employers to track your career growth progress.
In conclusion, education is an important Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicator for a registered nurse working in a nursing home. Higher education as well as continuing education and mastering advanced technologies ensure high-quality healthcare provision. Aspects such as data entrance and record-keeping are majorly simplified and error-free as compared to handwritten paperwork. In addition, education provides nurses with self-evaluation skills and experience of reflective practices that foster growth and development of professional competencies by nurses.
References
Backhaus, R., Verbeek, H., van Rossum, E., Capezuti, E., & Hamers, J. P. (2015). Future distinguishing competencies of baccalaureate-educated registered nurses in nursing homes. Geriatric Nursing, 36(6), 438-444.
Banova, B. (2018). The Impact of Technology on Healthcare | AIMS EDUCATION. Web.
Carter, M. A., & Moore, P. J. (2015). The necessity of the Doctor of Nursing Practice in comprehensive care for future health care. Clinical Scholars Review, 8(1), 13-17.
Robin, H. (2016). Benefits of using an electronic health record: Nursing2019. Web.
Scott, S. A. (2016). Health literacy education in baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States. Nursing Education Perspectives, 37(3), 153-158.
Walsh, U. (2019). How Nursing Has Changed with Technology. Web.