Maintaining Standards Essay

Maintaining Standards Essay

Nursing practice standards are more important than ever as healthcare continues to evolve. Maintaining practice standards is critical to ensuring patient safety and quality care. In nursing, certification is one way to demonstrate competence and adherence to these standards. This essay will discuss nursing practice standards and how nursing certification affects these standards in healthcare organizations.

Certification for Nursing

Nursing certification is a process that validates nurses’ competence through assessment and evaluation. It ensures that nurses have the necessary education, knowledge, and skills to provide safe and high-quality care to patients (Lockhart, 2019). Nursing certification is optional but highly recommended for nurses who want to advance their careers, improve their professional development, and demonstrate their expertise in a specialized area of nursing.

Depending on the certification body, the nursing certification process may include meeting specific eligibility requirements, passing an examination, and maintaining certification through continuing education and ongoing professional development (Lockhart, 2019). The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is one of the most well-known nursing certification organizations in the United States, offering certifications in various specialties such as critical care, gerontological, and pediatric nursing. The ANCC certification process requires that nurses have a certain level of education and experience in the specialty area, pass an examination, and continue to meet continuing education requirements.

The Impact of Nursing Certification on Organization’s Standards

Nursing certification is a widely accepted method for nurses to demonstrate their expertise and advance their careers. However, nursing certification has positive and negative effects on nursing practice and workplace issues. Improved patient care is one of the benefits of nursing certification. According to Mlambo et al. (2021), certified nurses have a higher level of expertise in their field, which results in better patient care and outcomes. Furthermore, certification can help nurses advance in their careers and provide new opportunities for professional development. This results in professional recognition and increased respect and recognition from colleagues and employers, which can contribute to increased job satisfaction.

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Nursing certification, on the other hand, has some drawbacks. One of the most significant adverse effects is the cost of certification, which includes fees for the examination, continuing education, and recertification. Preparing for certification can also be time-consuming and require substantial study and preparation, which can be difficult for nurses who already work long hours (Dierkes et al., 2021). Nursing certification requirements can also impact staffing because not all nurses are certified in a specific specialty area, causing staffing and scheduling issues. Maintaining certification can also be stressful, putting nurses under pressure to meet ongoing continuing education requirements, leading to burnout and high turnover rates.

In my nursing practice, I have seen firsthand how nursing certification can improve patient care and overall workplace standards. Certified nurses, for example, are frequently more confident in their practice and can provide more comprehensive and up-to-date care to their patients. Certified nurses are also more likely to be current on the most recent evidence-based practices and can apply this knowledge to improve patient outcomes. Furthermore, certified nurses frequently exhibit higher professionalism, which can improve teamwork and collaboration among staff.

Conclusion

Maintaining nursing practice standards is critical for ensuring patient safety and quality care. Nursing certification is one method of validating nurses’ competence and demonstrating adherence to these standards. While nursing certification has positive and negative consequences, the positive consequences, such as improved patient care and career advancement, far outweigh the negatives. Nursing certification will become increasingly important as healthcare evolves to ensure nurses have the knowledge and skills to provide safe, quality care.

References

Dierkes, A. M., Schlak, A. E., French, R., McHugh, M. D., & Aiken, L. (2021). Why do some nurses obtain specialty certification and others do not? JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 51(5), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000001009

Lockhart, L. (2019). Nursing certification. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy! 17(3), 56. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nme.0000554606.21726.05

Mlambo, M., Silén, C., & McGrath, C. (2021). Lifelong learning and nurses’ continuing professional development, a meta-synthesis of the literature. BMC Nursing, 20(62), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00579-2

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Activity 3
Maintaining Standards
Choose a topic and discuss the standards in detail. Analyze how these concepts/ processes influence the standards in your organization, including staffing, decision making or workplace issues, both positively and negatively.

• Affordable Care Act
• Agency for Healthcare, Quality and Research
• Benchmarking Tools and Organizations
• Certification for Nursing
• Electronic Health Care Record
• Electronic prescribing / Telehealth
• Institute for Healthcare, Quality Improvement
• Lean Project Management
• Outcomes Management
• Patient Care Pathways
• Population Health Management • Practice Guidelines
• Quality Management
• Risk Management
• Sentinel Event Management
• Standards of Nursing Practice
• Standards of Patient Care
• Structure Standards
• TJC Accreditation
• Utilization Management
• Value based care
Support your discussion and opinions with facts and relevant examples from personal nursing practice.
Reading and Resources
• Review chapter 13 & 23 in Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
• Aroh, D., Colella, J., Douglas, C., & Eddings, A. (2015). An example of translating value-based purchasing into value-based care. Urologic Nursing, 35(2), 61-74. doi:10.7257/1053-816X.2015.35.2.61
• Kizer, K. W. (2015). Clinical integration: A cornerstone for population health management. Journal of Healthcare Management, 60(3), 164-168.
• Spruce, L. (2015). Back to basics: Implementing evidence-based practice. AORN Journal, 101(1), 106-112. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2014.08.009
• Visit the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
• Visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
• Visit the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Visit The Joint Commission
• Visit Affordable Care Act
Additional Instructions:
1. All submissions should have a title page and reference page.
2. Utilize a minimum of two scholarly resources.
3. Adhere to grammar, spelling and punctuation criteria.
4. Adhere to APA compliance guidelines.
5. Adhere to the chosen Submission Option for Delivery of Activity guidelines.
Submission Options
Choose One: Instructions:

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Paper • 2 page paper. Include title and reference pages.

Management and Leadership – Maintaining Standards
Description: The baccalaureate-graduate nurse will examine the concepts/ processes that assist in maintaining standards that promote patient safety.
Course Competency: 4) Develop a personal “toolkit” based on best practice evidence for managing workplace issues such as change initiatives, conflict and discrimination.
QSEN Competency: 2) Teamwork and Collaboration
BSN Essential II
Area	Gold Mastery	Silver Proficient	Bronze Acceptable	Acceptable Mastery not Demonstrated
Choose a Topic	Selects a topic from the list above and discusses the standard in detail	Selects a topic from the list above but does not discuss the standard in detail	Selects a topic from the list above and lists details of the standard	Selects a topic from the list above but does not discuss the standard
Analyze the	Discusses how	Mentions how these concepts/ processes influence the standards in your organization, including staffing, decision making or workplace issues, both positively and negatively.	Lists how these concepts/ processes influence the standards in your organization, including staffing, decision making or workplace issues, both positively and negatively.	Does not discuss how these concepts/ processes influence the standards in your organization, including staffing, decision making or workplace issues, both positively and negatively.
Influence	these concepts/
	processes
	influence the
	standards in your
	organization,
	including
	staffing, decision
	making or
	workplace
	issues, both
	positively and
	negatively.
Support the	Supports the	Supports the discussion and opinions with either facts or relevant examples from personal nursing practice	Lists facts and	Does not support
Discussion	discussion and		relevant	the discussion
	opinions with		examples from	and opinions
	facts and		personal nursing	with facts and
	relevant		practice with no	relevant
	examples from		discussion	examples from
	personal nursing			personal nursing
	practice			practice
APA, Grammar,	No errors in	One to three	Four to six	Seven or more
Spelling, and	APA, Spelling,	errors in APA,	errors in APA,	errors in APA,
Punctuation	and Punctuation.	Spelling, and	Spelling, and	Spelling, and
		Punctuation.	Punctuation.	Punctuation.
References	Provides two or more references.	Provides two references.	Provides one references.	Provides no references.