AACN Essentials

Submit your final thoughts on the nine AACN Essentials compiled from your Discussion Board posts and discussions with peers and faculty. Incorporate ideas and concepts you learned from your discussions.

For each essential include the following:

· A brief summary explanation of the essential that is cited with at least one scholarly source

· At least one example of how you met the essential during your nursing program

Use APA Style.

Review the rubric for more information on how your assignment will be graded.

RUBRIC

These are the discussion posts

Week 1 Discussion

DISCUSSION POSTS

A solid base in liberal education gives the distinguishing cornerstone for the learning and application of professional nursing. Learning the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences enables the learners to expand in their capability to participate in socially valued duties and civic leadership in the community. Furthermore, an effective foundation in liberal arts involves general education syllabus that gives wider exposure of knowing and several disciplines. In addition to this, prosperous integration of liberal learning and nursing tutoring gives graduates knowledge of current human cultures and traditions such as spiritual beliefs which support inclusive approach to application. The learning of fine arts, history, languages and literature is also important as they provide a stepping stone to develop cultural competence and clinical thinking. A liberal tutoring for nurses also develops the basis for practical and intellectual capabilities for nursing application (Tyndall, D. E., & Scott, E. S. 2017). This practice further engages with the wider society, both locally and globally. Skills obtained in liberal education also encourage team work, interprofessional dispute solving and good use of information technologies.

I achieved Essential 1 during the BSN program majorly through group discussions and research. The main reasons I chose essential 1 are as follows. The first reason is that I wanted to get skills and apply knowledge of cultural and social factors to the care of different groups in the society. For example to groups that speak different language. The second reason is that I wanted to know and use non-verbal, verbal and written methods to communicate to patients effectively. The other reason is that there is need to integrate the methods and knowledge of different disciplines to inform decision making. I also have a plan to continue to Master’s Degree and become an educator.

Week 2 Discussion

Knowledge and skills in leadership, quality improvement and safety are necessary in promoting high quality patient safe keeping. This is because leadership skills are required to stress critical and ethical decision making and also maintaining good working relationships. This is achieved by use of respectful communication skills and good dispute resolving strategies. This encourages peace which makes it easier to achieve high quality patient safe-keeping. Furthermore, baccalaureate graduate will learn, understand and be able to apply quality improvement techniques to patients in the society. In addition to this, graduates in this will be able to help in developing essential safety and investigations. They can also help in monitoring the outcomes of these measures within the clinical environment. It is critical to note that safety is an important component of quality. Nurses can be able to examine, interrupt, recognize and amend healthcare errors promoting high quality of life (Thomas, et al, 2017). Graduates will be able to know quality and safety concerns and be able to put in practice.

I met essential II in order to be a creative and an effective leader. Leadership is very important is exercising this duty. Getting effective communication skills will greatly impact my career positively and will promote quality patient healthcare. I am also preparing to create awareness of complex systems of organizations. My peers and I achieved this essential through aural and social styles of learning. The process was not easy but I know getting these skills will greatly help me improve in my future career and promote high quality of life to patients.

Week 3 Discussion

Professional nursing application is grounded in the relocation of current evidence into practice. This is because endowment for the baccalaureate degree holder entails recognition of practice issues, integration and appraisal of proof and examination of results. Graduate nurses are expected to monitor patient results and spot practice issues. Proof-based practice styles give a well ordered process for the application and examination of proof based on evidence in practice environment. Furthermore, baccalaureate degree holders are trained to share proof of best measures with interprofessional group. To stabilize this condition, baccalaureate tutoring gives a key understanding how proof is created including patient choices and preference, clinical judgment, process of research and interprofessional point of view. Degree holders are expected to rely on evidence and formulate different ways to make clinical judgments. In addition to this, graduates are expected to work together with other healthcare team individuals in recording and analyzing proof to improve patient results (Pierre, J. S., & Conley, D. M. 2017).

Meeting essential III was one of the greatest achievements during my BSN program. My peers and I employed verbal and physical learning styles during week three. The learning experience was interesting. It will enable me to explain the relationships between application, theory and research. Furthermore, this baccalaureate program will enable my peers and me to campaign for protection of human subjects in the practice of research. It will also help us integrate interprofessional point of view, clinical judgment and examining results of care. It will also enable me in gathering, dissemination and documentation of proof. Finally, the baccalaureate program will enable me and my peers to get the understanding on how nursing and quality patient care are related and help us apply.

Week 4 Discussion

Knowledge and skills in details and patient care technology are very important in training baccalaureate degree holders to provide quality patient care in different healthcare surroundings. Degree holders must have key competence knowledge and skills for quality patient care practice. These basic skills include application of patient care technologies by use of computers and other technological support to gather patient’s data and general interventions (DECATO, S. 2020). Furthermore, baccalaureate degree holders must acquire skills in the use of information technology systems such as conclusion-aid systems to collect proof which will help in guiding practice. Graduates must also be able to use these technologies in a comfortable way without difficulties in order to promote high quality of life. It is important to note that computer literacy is very vital in nursing career. It gives nurses easy time in using technologies hence improving results of the patient. In most cases, baccalaureate degree holders ethically handle knowledge, data and information and technology in order to communicate perfectly.

Meeting essential IV in my BSN program was a good achievement to me. This is because the understanding and application of these technologies are the foundation to effective provision of quality patient care. It becomes easy when graduates know how to use technology to provide quality patient care. We applied physical learning methods as we did it practically. In addition to this, understanding these skills will give me a room for further innovation and continual learning which will be of benefit to the society. For example is developing more efficient ways of quality patient care.

Week 5 Discussion

Healthcare principles, involving regulatory and financial, that indirectly and directly affects the nature and performance of healthcare arrangement are very important considerations in professional nursing application. This is because these policies model responses to local, organizational, national and global issues of justice, equity and access in health care. Furthermore, healthcare policies are also primary to any discussion concerning safety and quality in the application surrounding. After completion of this essential five, the baccalaureate degree holder will be able to get a better understanding of the larger environment of healthcare practice. This involves understanding how reimbursement is formulated and how patient care services are financed and arranged (Davis, et al, 2020).These skills will give a graduate bigger understanding and help him or her perform needed duties effectively. Knowing these skills increases efficiency in healthcare practice. In addition to this, healthcare policies, finance and administrative surroundings will enable degree holder to understand how issues in healthcare are spotted, how healthcare policies can be created and modified and finally how the entire process can be influenced.

Achieving essential five in my nursing program was of importance to my career. I had to know these policies as they greatly affect quality patient care. My peers and I used group discussions to learn this and the learning experience was amazing. The knowledge that I get from this essential five will enable me to perform my duties with justice and fairness which are very important. Learning this essential will also enable me and my peers evaluate regulatory and legislative procedures to the delivery of quality healthcare to patients in different environments. It will also be of benefit to my future as I now know how health care is arranged and financed.

Week 6 Discussion

Effectual communication and collaboration among health specialists is crucial in delivering quality patient care. This is because interprofessional knowledge helps baccalaureate degree holders to go into workplace with good communication skills that will enhance quality patient care and basic competencies and courage for successful interactions that will later yield better patient results. In most cases, health specialists are challenged to train future nurses to provide quality patient care, emphasizing on good communication skills, informatics and improved quality approaches. It is also important to note that interprofessional education is interactive and it involves two or more health practitioners who focus on achieving quality health care. In order to achieve quality health care, team work is required. Collaboration is established on understanding duties and complementarities of these duties by the members of healthcare groups (Burton, et al, 2019). In addition to this, interprofessional education can take place in a variety of environments. Interprofessional education also optimizes opportunities and is goal centered.

Essential six is also an important essential that I achieved. Based on the fact that everything is about communication, developing good communication skills is very important. We achieved this through group discussions as the essential itself requires team work. The learning experience was interesting and every group member liked it. Achieving this essential six will be of great benefit to my future career. It will help me to develop collaborative techniques such as team building when working with interprofessional groups. Meeting this essential will also enable me campaign for good health care and patient safety like promoting disease prevention awareness by help of good communication skills.

Week 7 Discussion

Health advancement and disease prevention at population and individual levels are important essentials in baccalaureate nursing application. This is because these measures are vital in improving population health. In areas of health, disease and mortality, lifestyle and genetic factors are the main determinants of entire population health. Environment is also a determinant of population health. This makes it difficult to rely on patient care practices alone to improve human health. Other factors have to be considered too. Promotion of health and injury prevention will enable people in different environments to reduce health outcomes and saving costs. In most cases, clinical prevention includes practices like screening, vaccinations, guiding and counseling (Imanda, S. 2019). In order to achieve this, nurses need to have the knowledge about health promotion and disease prevention. This also is accompanied by team work as nurses need to collaborate with each other in this practice. In this practice, there is identification of determinants of health and prioritization of key prevention measures.

Meeting essential seven in my BSN program was awesome. Promoting good health and disease prevention measures has been my biggest desire in my career and entire life. My peers and I found interesting time in learning this as many of them also feel good to advocate for disease prevention in the society. Acquiring knowledge and skills from this essential seven will enable me to conduct history of health that identifies genetic risks for the better future of the people in the society. It will also help me employ good communication skills to advocate for disease prevention and health promotion.

Week 8 Discussion

Professional values and their related behaviors including autonomy, altruism, social fairness, human dignity and honesty are very important in nursing practice. This is because these behaviors lay a basic foundation for the application in nursing. Professionalism can be simply recognized as persistent showing and delivering core values proofed by nurses in order to achieve quality patient care. This professionalism is accompanied by integrity, respect, effective communication and excellence. In addition to this, professionalism also entails accountability of one’s self and application of nursing skills. For many years, professional nursing has enjoyed a persistent respect from people across the world. Professional nursing is believed to yield positive fruits and promote respect in the field of nursing. It is a good thing to serve patients professionally. The main reason behind this is that caring and compassion are involved. One cannot claim to be professional when he or she does not care. Caring is the central concept in nursing practice (Rogers , et al, 2020).Degree holders are expected to develop these professional skills and behaviors in order to achieve quality health care.

Essential eight was also important in my BSN program. This is the center of everything in nursing because nursing is about caring. Caring comes with its values that one has to learn in order to perform this practice effectively. My peers and I found it interesting when learning this essential. We employed the use of verbal and kinetic learning styles to meet this. Knowledge attained from this essential will help me serve patients with dignity, respect and integrity. This essential will also enable me and my peers protect patient’s confidentiality and privacy and other critical communications. These values will greatly help me improve in patient healthcare practice.

Week 9 Discussion

Essential nine is the final essential in BSN program and it prepares degree holders to practice their skills to patients in different parts of society. This essential prepares degree holders to focus on results that integrate the skills, knowledge and values acquired in essentials one to eight in order to practice effectively to patients in different areas of the society. The fact that professional nurses are the central links between complicated healthcare environments and the patients, they are expected to give quality and compassionate health care based on scientific knowledge. Essential nine stresses that advancement in skills and knowledge is crucial to this nursing practice (Scanlon, et al, 2019).The degree holder will effectively exercise his or her roles basing on nursing practices that are accompanied by ethical values. In addition to this, acquisition of knowledge related to disease management and good health promotion like disease prevention measures is very vital to nursing application. Graduated nurses will also be prepared to care for the patients in both classes, including the young and the older people.

Meeting essential nine was the greatest achievement as it summarizes everything and prepares one to effectively perform his duties. The learning experience was good and motivating. Both group discussions and individual works made it success for the completion of this course. It would have been of no importance if I failed to reach this level. This is because this level prepares graduates to fully apply their knowledge and skill in the real world, which is real working environments. These skills will be used for a long-term career and also help me implement everything I have learned in the entire course.

References

Burton, C. W., Williams, J. R., & Anderson, J. (2019). Trauma-informed care education in baccalaureate nursing curricula in the United States: applying the American Association of Colleges of Nursing essentials. Journal of forensic nursing, 15(4), 214-221.

Davis, A. H., Manning, J., Germain, D. S., Hayes, S., & Pigg, C. (2020). Implementing Disaster Simulations for Baccalaureate Nursing Students in the Gulf-Coast Region. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 43, 26-34.

DECATO, S. (2020). CHAPTER NINE PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING SARAH DECATO, MSN, RN JANET MORRISSETTE, MSN, RN, PHNA-BC. The Many Roles of the Registered Nurse, 74.

Imanda, S. (2019). A Comparison of the Curricula of the Top-Ranked Prelicensure Baccalaureate Nursing Programs in the United States.

Pierre, J. S., & Conley, D. M. (2017). Introduction to gerontological nursing. Gerontological nursing competencies for care, 1.

Rogers, C. E., Wilcox, J., & Bodine-Ford, V. (2020). Using an Academic‐Practice Partnership to Implement a Perioperative Nursing Elective in a Baccalaureate Nursing Program. AORN journal, 112(4), 367-375.

Scanlon, A., Kelly, S., Reinisch, C., & Smolowitz, J. (2019). RN-to-BSN Education. Global and Population Health Project: Think Global, Act Local. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 14(1), 54-57.

Thomas, P., Servello, D., & Williams, J. (2017, October). Baccalaureate education: The foundation for healthcare board participation. In Nursing forum (Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 289-297).

Tyndall, D. E., & Scott, E. S. (2017). Writing development in associate degree in nursing-to-baccalaureate degree in nursing students: Moving out of the comfort zone. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(3), 182-185.