Patricia Benner's Levels Of Clinical Competence

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Many factors affect positive patient outcomes in a world where nursing practice changes daily based on new science, new medicine, and new technology. The competence of the nurse providing clinical care in the emergency room is the one factor that should not be wavering. Not only is an emergency room nurse faced with multiple roles within the department, they encounter numerous patient diagnoses, and must be skilled in recognizing urgency versus emergency. In this midrange theory analysis, Patricia Benner’s Levels of Clinical Competence will be explored in relation to the transition from a new graduate to an expert nurse in the various roles and skills they must practice. The utmost priority of hospital management and educators should be ensuring …show more content…

She/He has no actual experience in patient care situations and therefore must be monitored by a preceptor in order to have verbal cues on what tasks to complete. This stage is more observational with no real analysis of any situation because these nurses lack judgement and experience to draw from.
Advanced Beginner
The second stage of competence is known as the advanced beginner. This nurse has had time to learn certain basic skill sets and is able to accomplish them with minimal support from a more experienced team members. This stage has a continual growth of knowledge and application because the nurse begins to see her role as more of a process than task oriented based on previous experiences.
Competent
A competent nurse has been in similar roles for 2-3 years and feels fairly confident in the tasks she/he performs daily. This person purposefully plans for their patients and is able to intervene efficiently. Organization and prioritization is based on deliberate planning. …show more content…

Nurses must develop the knowledge base of practice (know how), and through investigation and observation, begin to record and develop the know-how of clinical expertise. Ideally, practive and theory dialog creates new possibilities. Theory is derived from practice, and practice is extended by theory (alligood, 2014.) The relationship then, between ethical theory and skillful ethical comportment must be a dialogue between partners, each shaping and informing the other. Disengaged reason and rational calculation cannot replace engaged care as a moral source of wisdom (Benner, Tanner, Chesla 2009). From Novice to Expert, suggests that intuition is really the putting together of the whole picture based on scientific knowledge and clinical expertise, not just a hunch, and intuition continues to be an important part of the nursing process (Benner et al., 2008) A practitioner cannot practice beyond their level of

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