Running Head: Continuing Education in Nursing 1

Continuing Education in Nursing

Name

Institution

Date
Continuing Education in Nursing 2

Continuing Education in Nursing

Introduction

Health care requires transformation to allow affordability and enhance accessibility.

The health system should be patient-centered and gives quality services to the

community. Improving nursing education and remodeling some hospital systems are

the first steps to attaining such transformation. Equipping nurses with quality

education and training should be a continuous process through their careers. Nursing

education's key objective is to prepare a nurse with all the necessary tools such as

knowledge, experience, and skills to offer quality care and satisfy the diverse patients'

wants (Procter, 2017). The education system transforms a nurse into a leader that

serves the society with passion and enthusiasm.

Continuing education will lead to enhanced and seamless health outcomes and

innovation of better methods incorporated into the health care system. At all times,

nurses should work in collaboration with other health care practitioners to execute

complex tasks (Procter, 2017). An effective partnership is one way to gain more

experience and expertise in the field. Nurses certification and licensing allow

registered nurses to pursue scholarships and higher education programs to enhance

their skills and advance their knowledge. Continuing education in nursing is leeway to

various opportunities in the job market. It also continuously develop one's decision

making and critical thinking skills, which make him/her qualified for senior

leadership or managerial positions in organizations.

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Job market Options and the IOM Future of Nursing Recommendations

Nursing career in the current job market focuses on high quality education, nursing

skills and technological changes in the global health care system. Holding a degree in

nursing with soft skills such as financial management, system analysis and

information technology gives an added advantage. Such skills gives opportunities to a

nurse as a general practitioner, or a clinical nursing practitioner. He/ she can also be

employed to perform any managerial duties in a health facility based on their skills.

Among the changing demands in the current market is the requirement for family

nurse practitioners. Baby boomers generation are now aging and needs delicate care

and experienced nurses are going on retirement on day-to-day basis thus causing an

influx (Haddad et al., 2020). With this influx, technology in the healthcare is

advancing and thus creating demand for more clinical nurse practitioners and public

health nurses who are highly adaptive to change and prepared to satisfy various

demands of patients while maintaining quality and showing care. Therefore, I have

many options with which I can be qualified to serve as a nurse in different capacities.

IOM future of nursing recommendations for achieving higher levels of education

focuses on how enhanced education system foster smooth academic progress for

nurses. The recommendation is structured to address the various academic levels and

training through a nurse’s career and emphasizes the importance of continuous

learning (Hooper, 2016). First recommendation on achieving higher education is

ensuring that over 80% of the nurses joining healthcare workforce have attained

baccalaureate degree, or are in the process of attaining it at their early stages of

nursing career. The recommendations also emphasizes increasing the number of

graduate nurses and those pursuing doctoral level. Having nursing graduates and
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doctoral holders will help in foundation of nursing faculties and advance research

(Hooper, 2016). Advancing nursing education will also help in constitution of diverse

student body with various races, gender, and accommodates the minorities. In order to

achieve this recommendations, the nursing education curriculum should undergo

thorough changes and transformation.

Advanced degrees and competitive advantage in the current job market and

your role in the future of nursing.

Being registered nurses, I will want to further my studies by enrolling in masters of

science in nursing (MSN) within the next three years. Under the MSN program, I will

major in family nursing practice. Being a family nurse practitioner will give me a

chance to work in collaboration with other medics to offer excellent and quality

services to families and home based patients. I will be equipped with skills to

competently set up treatment plan for diverse group of patients. As a family nurse, I

will be able to focus on improving the health and lifestyle of my patients. After the

completion of MSN, I will enroll immediately to doctoral nursing program (DNP) to

advance my research, leadership, and managerial skills. As an added advantage of

DNP, I will be qualified to serve in nursing faculties. I will also qualify to be certified

as an advanced practice registered nurse. I am determined to achieve masters of

science in nursing and doctoral nursing practice within the next eight years.

Every employer looks to find a nurse who can provide better care to their patients and

high education is highly associated with better service delivery and sophisticated

nursing skills. Advanced education and competence in nursing practice are

proportionally correlated. A registered nurse who is a degree holder is deemed to be

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highly productive with minimal errors, and have great diagnostic expertise with few

recorded death. The higher the education, the higher the competence level of a nurse

(Fukada, 2018). Moreover, advanced nursing education qualifies one to positions of

influence where they can develop healthcare policies and quality controls. For

instance, every fresh nursing graduate require a proper transition from academic to

practice environment. A proper transition will help an entry-level nurse gain

confidence and center their passion to serving the community and giving quality care.

It will also allow the nurse find a career path that they can pursue in future. On the

other hand, experienced nurses require advanced education in preparation to take over

leadership roles and speciality practices. Versed experience, research and advanced

knowledge are the key tools I will employ to improve nursing practices through

policy development, procedure formulation and technological innovations when I get

a chance (Olsson & Gullberg, 2018).

Relationship of continuing nursing education to competency, attitudes,

knowledge, and the ANA Scope and Standards for Practice and Code of Ethics

and if continuing education should be made mandatory.

Basis of nursing education should be founded on competency because nurses must be

ascertained to be competent before licensing . Competence gives a nurse the required

skills to fulfil their nursing duties (Goudreau et al., 2015). Therefore, continuing

nursing education positively affects the level of competence of a nurse. Nurses will be

equipped with more skills to competently perform their duties. Advance knowledge

and training provides a nurse with correct procedural processes and techniques to

carry out their practices with ease, and with minimal errors. It also helps nurses adapt

to the changing technological and patient demands. Saving life of patients and being
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able to help them is a motivation to nurses, and in the long run, generate a positive

attitude towards nursing practice.

Continuing nursing education in relation to ANA scope and standards for practice and

code of ethics enhances quality of service and career development. It also ensures

nursing competence and evidence-based care for patients. Code of conduct becomes a

guide to provision of fair treatment with integrity and accountability (Eustace, 2016).

Continuing nursing education should be made mandatory so that all nurses are

equipped with advanced knowledge, patients are given quality care and nursing

technologies are up to task to meet the needs of the clients. High competency in

nursing practice and better patient outcome will result if continuing education is made

compulsory .
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References

Eustace, L. (2016). Mandatory Continuing Education: Past, Present, and Future

Trends and Issues. The Journal Of Continuing Education In Nursing, 32(3), 133-137.

doi: 10.3928/0022-0124-20010501-09.

Fukada, M. (2018). Nursing Competency: Definition, Structure and

Development. Yonago Acta Medica, 61(1), 001-007. doi: 10.33160/yam.2018.03.001.

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2020). Nursing shortage.

In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Hooper, V. (2016). The Institute of Medicine Report on the Future of Nursing: Where

Are We 5 Years Later?. Journal Of Perianesthesia Nursing, 31(5), 367-369. doi:

10.1016/j.jopan.2016.08.013.

Olsson, H., & Gullberg, M. (2018). Nursing education and importance of professional

status in the nurse role. Expectations and knowledge of the nurse role. International

Journal Of Nursing Studies, 25(4), 287-293. doi: 10.1016/0020-7489(88)90065-x.

Procter, P. (2017). Nursing Education. Health Informatics, 415-425. doi:

10.1007/978-1-4471-2999-8_20.