How critical thinking enhances the professional practice of the registered nurses?
It is essential that the Registered Nurse be capable of critical thinking. Although the physician ordinarily forms a plan of care, the registered nurse produces a care plan. The physician in a hospital setting sees the patient for ten to fifteen minutes a day on a good day. The registered nurse sees and assesses, that patient every four to eight hours. You may survive a bad physician, but you may not survive a bad registered nurse. The RN must notice subtle responses to treatment, medications, and deteriorations in condition due to disease process. She must be able to make decisions as to what equipment to have nearby, who to call, when to jump the gun, when to call which physician and why, and what interventions to begin immediately. Make no mistake, physicians do the work of establishing diagnoses and a starting point for a plan of treatment. However, an expert RN notices subtleties in response and makes real time changes within hospital,legal, and unit guidelines. In critical care units, it's your nurse who keeps you alive.
Why is critical thinking essential to nurses?
I'll give you an example from my OB rotation. Baby was in trouble and the fetal monitor showed a heartrate in the 90s for a few minutes. (anyone would know that this is likely the mother) That nurse just called it a deceleration instead of putting a monitor on the mother's finger and finding the actual baby's heart. That baby barely survived. He had to be ventilated immediately after delivery. Now granted the resident doing this delivery should have caught it as well, but the nurse is the one at the bedside the whole time, and that was the subject of your question. You also don't want someone giving medications that could make a patient worse if their condition changes, such as a beta blocker to a hypotensive patient or insulin when a patient is hypoglycemic. Nurses need to know when to call a doctor and get orders changed because that doctor isn't on the unit 24/7, they are.
Registered Nurse or Nurse Practitioner?
RNs basically care for patients in hospitals and clinics - they don't manage a patient's medications or prescribe any tests needed to maintain a person's health. NPs, on the other hand, function more like physicians (not exactly like them but very similar to what MDs do on a daily basis). NPs write prescriptions, assess and diagnose patients and order any required tests that patients need. My advice: graduate nursing school (earning a 4-year/BSN degree) with above average grades; work as a RN in a variety of settings for 4-6 years; apply to NP school. NP schools want RNs with experience, not those who have been RNs for 1-2 years. The more varied your experience the better your chances of being accepted into a program. DO NOT do an online program offered to the masses; instead, find a local college that has had a NP program in existence for some time and attend school through that 4-year college. Many medical school attendees/graduates are leaning toward specialty fields like cardiology, neurology, nephrology, etc. b/c they pay more than general practice (family) MD jobs. Given this (and there is data to back this up), there will be a vast need for NPs and Physician Assistants (PAs). You probably won't be without a job over the next 20-30 years if you graduate from NP school. Just my thoughts, as a forward-thinking individual.
Clinical nurse specialists, advanced practice nurses, nurse practitioners: What are your job descriptions and responsibilities?
Thank you for this question. I wish I knew which professional organization you are doing research for so that I could be more confident in how the information is used. Well, these days you never know. Also it isn't clear that you want my details or the requirements to be an advanced nurse practitioner, but I'll give you mine.Country-United States of AmericaJob Title-disability retiredEducation level: Masters of Science/Critical Care-TraumaJob Description: To live a joyful stress free life and not look back at regrets.Fields of Action: HomeWages: Primarily social security disability and a small pension from a former employer. OK well I see some are general questions of all Advanced Practice Nurses so despite being non-active clinically, I have been active in the knowledge base and will speak from that.I think although the nursing profession ideally would like a standardization of roles/locations/salary/and job description for the Advance Nurse Practitioners , it's nearly impossible because Advance Nurse Practioner is a very broad term applied to any Nurse that has gone further with education and experience than the regular staff nurse. Within professional nursing organizations the definition, entry education and job description varies and I suggest you can easily find that separately from what I say here.I hope I have helped. It's impossible for me to be more thorough or more specific for you unless you have other detailed questions.
What is the difference between these two nursing degrees?
It somewhat comes right down to the college a BSN degree maximum possibly will concentration somewhat extra on nursing classes and somewhat below on supportive classes. So instead of doing 2 years of pre-nursing classes for a BS degree in nursing you are going to be able to do a million.5 years of pre-nursing below a BSN degree. once you bypass to coach for a job in nursing it would desire to no longer rely in case you have a BSc degree with a substantial in nursing or a BSN degree. what's going to rely on your skill agency is that your degree is primary with the aid of the State Board of Nursing for assembly their standards to grow to be a registered nurse.
What is the difference between a nurse clinician and advanced practice nurse?
A Nurse Clinician is a registered nurse who works in the clinical area where patient care is delivered. He could also be called a staff RN, a Clinical RN, Clinical Staff, or just plainly RN. the educational or academic qualifications vary from practice area, hospital settings and patient population. Basically, if you have a license to practice as a Nurse, you can work in a clinical area of your interest.A Research Nurse can and may work in the clinical setting with focus on research. The basic requirement is an RN license.An Advance Practice Nurse (APN, or NP for Nurse Practitioner), is an RN with special training on an area of nursing where his practice is sought. For example, Nurse Anesthetists practice in a special field of nursing providing anesthesia care. A Nurse Midwife is an advance RN specializing in say, Labor and Delivery Nursing Care area. A Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) is an Advance practice Nurse specializing in the delivery of holistic care to families. As Advance Practice Nurses, these individuals possess higher academic qualifications and expert training in their respective fields. They are still Nurses and they can still be in the clinical areas, hence, they can still be Nurse Clinicians.A Nurse who works outside of the clinical area is a Nurse on that specified area. For example, Legal Nurses, Research Nurses outside of the clinical areas, Nurse consultants, Nurse Educators in the academic settings, and many other areas where the practice of nursing is not clinical. These types of nursing jobs still require the nursing license because their roles are part and parcel of the nursing practice body of knowledge.There are fewer areas where Advance Practice Nurses function in their specific roles. But all Advance Practice Nurses may have started in the clinical areas, stay there for a while, moved on to other specialty areas, or practice outside of the clinical areas. But all these times, they would have to be RN regardless of their level of expertise, experience or academic standing.
What are the differences between a registered nurse and a licensed practical nurse?
RN and LPN: two different sets of initials on different name badges – and often two very different roles. Registered nurses (RN) have, at the minimum, a two-year degree or three-year diploma. Many have baccalaureate degrees. RNs have an expanded set of duties and are more frequently employed in hospital settings. They, RNs, are generally expected to do more critical thinking on the job. Find a Registered Nursing program in your state.RN versus LPNLicensed practical nurses (LPN) have about a year of nursing education, often culminating in a certificate. A minority complete longer programs and walk away with a degree – often an Associate of Applied Science (AAS). Find an LPN or LVN program in your state.The role of an LPN is, as the name suggests, practical. LPNs are expected to report even minor changes in patient care to a registered nurse or other medical professional. As for what they actually do on the job, often it’s a lot!Work SettingsMore licensed practical nurses work in long term care than in any other setting. In these settings, they have opportunities to move up in the ranks, often supervising nursing assistants who perform the most basic duties (for example, bathing or changing bed pans). The NLN reported in 2011 that newly licensed LPNs in long term care were almost six times as likely to have administrative responsibilities as their counterparts in hospitals were.Every state has a Nurse Practice Act that defines the scope of practice for Registered Nurses and for Licensed Practical Nurses.In hospitals, LPN duties, as well as advancement opportunities, are more limited. You’ll find LPNs taking vitals and sometimes administering medications. You won’t find them caring for premature infants in the neonatal ward. They won’t have as many options for specialization.Work settings are varied. The BLS reports that 29% of LPNs work in nursing care facilities, 15% in hospitals, 12% in doctor’s offices, and 9% in home health. For RNs, hospitals are the most common setting, with 48% in private general hospitals and 6% in local hospitals. Only 5% work in long term care.
Is thinking critically like a nurse (answering NCLEX questions) something natural or is it something that can be learned?
I feel like you might be asking two related but different questions. The first is, "can critical/clinical thinking be learned?" I would say that's the main goal of nursing school. For a variety of reasons, students often focus on the mechanical skills (IVs, catheters, tracheostomy care, etc); however, learning critical/clinical thinking is a much more important skill. For example, I could teach you how to use a specific urinary catheter kit, and you may become competent with that specific kit. If I also did a good job teaching you the general ideas concerning catheter insertion (clean hand, sterile hand, protection of the sterile field), you may be able to use a completely different catheter kit with little more than a few minutes of thinking about the concepts involved and how they apply to the materials in front of you. Similarly, I could teach you about how to handle specific patient encounters, but I can't teach you everything that you will encounter in practice. However, I can teach you to think clinically/critically about the types of situations you may encounter, from which you may be able to respond to new variations of situations. The second question is/might be, can one learn how to answer NCLEX questions, which are a specific type of test question. The answer to this is also yes. In fact, when studying for the NCLEX, learning how to parse and disassemble the questions is one of the critical skills for mastering the exam. Though I'm generally loathe to recommend for-profit test-taking products (after all, you presumably just paid several thousands of dollars for a nursing education), I found a Kaplan book to be quite helpful when I was preparing for the NCLEX. They no longer make the specific book, but I believe "NCLEX-RN 2014-2015 Strategies, Practice, and Review with Practice Test" is similar in its coverage of NCLEX strategies.
What is an RN's scope of practice? (question for RN's)?
I am going to be a junior in high school this year, I go to a technical school and by the end of junior year we get our CNA licenses. After high school I was thinking about furthering my nursing degree. I know what my scope of practice is an a CNA. (bed-baths, bed making, feeding, catheter care, etc.) but I was wondering what are the things you do as an RN that are different then a CNA. A list of your duties would be great. Thank you.
What do you think about nursing students?
I have to first admit that I have a bias about nurses.In general, knowing all the nurses and physicians I have known in my life, I like nurses better. Often much better. Nurses are my favorite class of people.There are philosophical differences between physicians and nurses. Nurses spend much more time in training and indoctrination about their profession than physicians do in learning to PLAN. Physicians tend to jump to the conclusion, nurses tend to plan the PROCESS and then get to the SOLUTION.Nursing is about CARING. Nursing is about PROCESS. Nursing is about BREADTH and EXPERIENCE. Nursing is about TEACHING. Physicians are about action, specificity, getting it done.Even when nurses become nurse practitioners they do not become like physicians. I have worked with many nursing practitioners and physician assistants. They do similar jobs but not the same way (in general).Nursing students are baby nurses. They should be treated with respect, asked opinions, taught and advised. It is true that they don’t know much, as then don’t study anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pharmacology to the depth that medical students do, but medical students are pretty clueless. I know I sure was.On the few occasions when I was working around student nurses, as I haven’t done hospital practice in about 20 years, I tried to include them as well as the journeymen (and women) nurses in interesting things, physical findings, explaining what I was doing and why. (a journeyman is a skilled worker who does not need to be supervised, like a stone mason, plumber, carpenter) I often asked nurses for advice about how to manage things with patients, not what to prescribe but how to bandage something, get a patient up walking, eating, how was the patient’s mood, family interactions. How can we as a team MANAGE this patients issues.Like physicians or any other skilled field it takes several years of practice to become a skilled, professional nurse. It takes physicians a residency then 10 years beyond that to get really good at what they do. The same can be said for lawyers, carpenters, accountants, mechanics, pilots . . .Yup. Nurses are my favorite people.