Importance Of Education For Nurses Essay

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Recommended: Journey on becoming a registered nurse

Education for Nurses: What is Best for the Patient?
Giselle Palumbo
State College of Florida- Nursing
The concern over having a BSN into the entry level of nursing has been debated for many years. Since the American Nurses Association has proposed the change, the controversy as to what is the difference has between having an associate’s degree in nursing rather than a bachelor’s degree in nursing has sparked a fire in the health field. The education of a nurse is highly important, because the lives of others are in the hands of a nurse. Nurses tend to spend more time with patients than doctors. Their ability to respond, treat, and communicate is imperative to the health field and overall, the patient’s life. Nurses should be able to understand the definition of what a nurse is, what is expected of a nurse, and the education requirements and options that are available. Going through an associate’s degree program prepares the nurse for a broader and more basic care of patients. BSN programs infiltrate a better understand of nursing as a leader, the health field, and educates the nurse in more detail on the care of patients. There are also more hospitals requiring BSN as an entry level, like Magnet hospitals. These hospitals are shown to provide better care and lower statistics, like in death hospitals.
Nursing has many definitions. According to Florence Nightingale the goal of nursing is “to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him” (as cited in Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle & Cheever, 2010, p. 5). Essentially, Florence Nightingale was referring to ensuring the patient’s physiological needs were being met and the patient was stable. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human needs is continuously used throughout nursi...

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...rsing. (Last updated 2012, October 24th). Fact Sheet: The Impact of Education on Nursing Practice [PDF document]. Retrieved from American Nurses Association Web site: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/EdImpact.pdf
American Nurses Credentialing Center. (2014a). Magnet recognition program overview. Retrieved from http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Magnet/ProgramOverview
American Nurses Credentialing Center. (2014b). Benefits. Retrieved from http://www.nursecredentialing.org/WhyBecomeMagnet
Smith, T., (October 5, 2009) "A Policy Perspective on the Entry into Practice Issue" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 15, No. 1. DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No01PPT01 or retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol152010/No1Jan2010/Articles-Previous-Topic/Policy-and-Entry-into-Practice.html

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