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Nursing

AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing

AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice provide an important foundation for nursing education by providing students with the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to be the best, most caring, safe, and most effective nurse in any setting. Individuals receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree would be unable to provide respectful, efficient, unbiased, and critically thought-out care unless students learned and implemented the nine AACN Essentials. Liberal education for baccalaureate generalist nursing practice; basic organizational and systems leadership for quality care and patient safety; scholarship for evidence-based practice; information management and application of patient care technology; healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments; interprofessional communication and collaboration for improving patient health outcomes; clinical prevention and population health; and professional development are the nine essentials. There are rationales within each essential to help school executives understand the relevance to current and future nursing practices, as well as sample content to assist school executives in developing an effective curriculum (AACN 2008).

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing were first endorsed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in 1998. Due to advancements in science and technology, the essentials were updated in 2008 to reflect healthcare innovations. The diverse population of the United States advances in science and technology and healthcare access are the driving forces behind the development of these necessities. Nurses must assess, plan, implement, and evaluate patient care while taking the patient’s values, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and culture into account. With the AACN Essentials, nurses from all backgrounds will gain the knowledge, cognition, and skills needed to provide safe, quality care while improving patient outcomes (AACN, 2008).

According to the AACN, the Essentials provide a framework for developing a framework that is relevant to the most recent nursing practices. The nine essentials of baccalaureate nursing practice represent the skills and knowledge that a professional nurse should have. These essentials should be included in the academic setting to prepare nurses to deliver patient-centered care, collaborate with professionals in a variety of healthcare fields, work in a variety of healthcare environments, apply evidence-based practice in the field, and continue to educate themselves in the profession as nursing practice evolves. The roles of a baccalaureate generalist nurse include providing, designing, managing, and coordinating care while also belonging to a specific profession. Individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations receive direct and indirect care in this generalist nursing practice. Nurses act as patient caregivers, advocates, and educators when providing care to ensure that patients receive the best possible care. Nurses assume responsibility and accountability for the care provided to the patient, including tasks delegated to other healthcare personnel, when designing, managing, and coordinating care. Nurses use their extensive knowledge and skills in their respective healthcare settings as members of a specific profession (AACN, 2008).

Liberal Education for the Baccalaureate Generalist Nurse. Liberal education enables graduates to develop the values and standards required to address the twenty-first century’s continuous advancements in technology, demographics, and economic changes. An aging population, diverse family, community, and state structures, increasing global interdependence, and political and economic changes in the United States healthcare system is among these trends. A liberal education equips the baccalaureate graduate with the knowledge, skills, and values gained from the arts and sciences in order to provide humanistic, safe, and quality care. It also trains new graduates to be advocates for individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations, as well as to promote social justice (AACN, 2008).

Basic Organizational and System Leadership for Quality Care and Patient Safety (Essential II). Leadership at the organizational and system levels, as well as quality improvement and safety, are critical to promoting high-quality patient care. Leadership abilities that emphasize critical thinking and decision-making, high ethical standards, and the establishment and maintenance of effective working relationships are required. Effective collaboration, care coordination, and conflict resolution strategies within interprofessional teams are critical to ensuring patient safety and quality care. Nursing leadership must be aware of complex systems and the effects that politics, policy, and power have on them.

Scholarship for Evidence-Based Practice is essential. Identifying issues in nursing practice, assessing and incorporating evidence, and evaluating outcomes are all part of the baccalaureate graduate nurse scholarship. Evidence-based practices lay the groundwork for evaluating and applying scientific evidence in professional nursing practice. The translation of current evidence into practice underpins professional nursing practice. Baccalaureate graduates are prepared to share evidence of best practices with the interprofessional team and are expected to do so. Baccalaureate education provides a fundamental understanding of how evidence is generated, including the research process, clinical judgment, interprofessional perspectives, and patient preference in practice. From here, it is up to us as nurses to continue to educate ourselves on the best, most up-to-date healthcare methods and to put them into practice (AACN, 2008).

Information Management and Patient Care Technology Application. Baccalaureate graduate nurses must be proficient in technology, including computers, other information technology systems used in data collection and storage, and patient care intervention devices. These skills and knowledge are essential components of any baccalaureate nursing program because we, as nurses, must be able to use them to provide quality, efficient, and evidence-based patient care in a variety of healthcare settings (AACN, 2008).

Healthcare Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments (Essential V). Nursing practice, as well as the nature and function of the healthcare system, are influenced by healthcare, financial, and regulatory policies, both directly and indirectly. These policies shape access, affordability, equity, and civil rights in and of healthcare at the local, organizational, national, and international levels. New baccalaureate nursing graduates will understand how patient healthcare is funded and reimbursed, how healthcare issues are identified, the policy is established and changed, and the influence nurses have on the process (AACN, 2008).

Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes is Essential VI. In order to provide quality patient-centered care, healthcare professionals must communicate and collaborate effectively. Interprofessional healthcare teams’ collaboration and teamwork result in high-quality, safe patient care. When new nurses use interprofessional education and collaboration, they can enter the workforce with the necessary communication competency and confidence, resulting in better patient outcomes (AACN, 2008).

Clinical Prevention and Population Health is Essential VII. The concepts of health promotion, disease prevention, and injury prevention are critical in improving the health of a population and span the entire lifespan. Baccalaureate nurses should be competent and confident in completing individually focused assessments and interventions such as screenings, immunizations, counseling, and education on healthy lifestyle habits, including preventing escalating diseases and other chronic conditions. New nurses should also be able to practice population-focused nursing, which entails identifying health determinants, prioritizing primary prevention, being proactive for at-risk populations, and utilizing all available resources to improve the health of the population as best as possible (AACN, 2008).

Professionalism and Professional Values are Essential VIII. Understanding the historical, legal, and contemporary contexts of nursing practice is inherent in professional practice. Professionalism is defined as nurses working with other professionals to achieve optimal health and wellness outcomes in patients, families, and communities by wisely applying principles of altruism, excellence, caring, ethics, respect, communication, and accountability. Accountability in nursing practice also includes taking responsibility for actions, civility, continuous professional engagement, and lifelong learning (AACN, 2008).

Baccalaureate Generalist Nursing Practice is a required course. Following graduation, new baccalaureate nurses will apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes outlined in the preceding eight essentials to the nursing care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations in a variety of settings. The ninth essential recognizes the importance of integrating proper knowledge, skills, and attitudes in nursing. Because we are directly connected to our patients and the complex healthcare environment, we must provide the best evidence-based practice and compassionate care to them (AACN, 2008).

Many notable figures and events throughout history have shaped the profession of nursing as we know it today. Florence Nightengale, the founder of modern nursing, played a critical role in nursing by establishing the first nursing training school, which later served as a model for nursing schools developed in the United States. Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, published by Nightingale, described her vision of nursing and her belief that extensive knowledge is required to practice nursing. The Florence Nightengale Pledge serves as an ethical code to help guide professional nurses’ conduct and decision-making. This pledge has become so important and well-known in the nursing profession that nursing students recite it upon graduation. Because of the numerous international armed conflicts in which the United States has been involved, the demand for nurses has skyrocketed in recent years. Though these conflicts are not to be celebrated, they did play an important role in the advancement of nursing practice. As more soldiers were injured in battle, the demand for nurses to care for the wounded grew. America responded by making more training available to women who wanted to serve and by improving soldier care (AACN, 2008). Nursing shortages are expected to worsen in the future, particularly in hospitals and long-term care facilities. This is due to a rapidly growing population, the retirement of older nurses, significant growth in the elderly population, increased physical, cognitive, and emotional stress, and modern nurses’ elevated professional expectations (AACN, 2020).

Patient-centered care entails nurses sharing, caring for, communicating, and developing a respectful and trusting relationship with patients. According to Haley et al., nurses’ self-awareness and enhanced active listening skills were strongly related to empathy, significantly improving patient care and patient-centered outcomes (2017). Active listening is essential for effective communication between patients and nurses. Nurses who understand how to communicate effectively with patients from diverse backgrounds are far more effective at providing high-quality, patient-centered nursing care (AACN, 2008).

Evidence-based practice is a method of providing health care that combines the best available evidence from research studies and patient care data with clinician expertise as well as patient preferences and values. Critical thinking improves clinical judgment, which includes basing nursing practice on current, evidence-based research. Nurses must stay current on modern nursing practices in order to provide the best possible care to their patients. To fulfill our responsibilities as nurses, we must seek out, analyze, evaluate, and implement current research findings (AACN, 2008).

The healthcare system in the United States is rapidly evolving as a result of technological advancements, research findings, and scientific breakthroughs. To better understand the healthcare system and provide the highest quality healthcare for the best patient outcomes, healthcare providers must be skilled in interprofessional communication and team collaboration (Bultas et al., 2016). In the healthcare setting, nurses must work as part of a team with a variety of other healthcare professionals to achieve the best outcomes for their patients. Nurses’ roles in the healthcare team include providing care, patient education, patient advocacy, care management, healthcare research, and collaboration (AACN, 2008).

When using electronic charting systems in healthcare facilities today, information technology is critical to patient safety and accuracy. Despite the fact that technological advancements are still relatively new and rapidly expanding, nurses must continue to use modern computer systems in healthcare. Electronic charting enables nurses to accurately document and communicate with other healthcare professionals involved in patient care while reducing physical storage space, safeguarding patient information, and reducing errors associated with patient care (AACN, 2008).

The AACN Essentials lay the groundwork for baccalaureate nursing students’ education, holding them to the highest standards of the nursing profession. In a variety of settings, registered nurses continue to play an important role in patient care. Nurses must have the knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with patients, families, and colleagues, collaborate as part of an interprofessional healthcare team, and demonstrate high-level critical thinking skills and clinical judgment to provide every patient with the best possible care and outcomes. Each of the nine essentials ensures that the new graduate nurse has the skills necessary to practice as the most effective, efficient, and caring nurse possible.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2008). The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aacnnursing.org/portals/42/publications/baccessentials08.pdf

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2020, September). AACN Fact Sheet – Nursing Shortage. https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Shortage

Bultas, M., Ruebling, I., Breitbach, A., Carlson, J. (2016). Views of the United States healthcare system: Findings from documentary analysis of an interprofessional education course. Journal of Interprofessional Care. 30. 762-768. 10.1080/13561820.2016.1206860.

Haley, B., Heo, S., Wright, P., Barone, C., Rettiganti, M. R., & Anders, M. (2017, March 22). Relationships among active listening, self-awareness, empathy, and patient-centered care in associate and baccalaureate degree nursing students. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352900816300231?via%3Dihub

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Question 

  1. Purpose of Assignment

    According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008), “Uphold ethical standards related to data security, regulatory requirements, confidentiality, and client’s right to privacy.”

    AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing

    AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing

    American Association of College of Nursing. (2008). The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Retrieved from: https://www.aacnnursing.org/Education-Resources/AACN-Essentials

  2. Course Competency

    Analyze ethical and nursing informatics practice standards within the context of healthcare delivery.

    Content

    Scenario

    You are a nursing manager of the education and innovations department at a large nonprofit academic medical center. You do work at the flagship hospital, but there are three additional campuses and several affiliated facilities throughout three additional states. Therefore, technology is heavily relied upon for consistent and reliable communication for interdisciplinary care. Recently, the CNO sent you a patient satisfaction survey highlighting how impressed this patient was with their nurse’s timeliness of answering their questions. The patient continued to share that the nurse used their personal cell phone to reach out to the patient’s provider to get clarification of the patient’s discharge instructions. The patient loved their quick response and wanted to highlight this as a best practice for all healthcare professionals.

    Instructions

    You have just completed a technology usage assessment of the healthcare staff across departments, and it has come to your attention that several nurses occasionally communicate with medical providers through text on their personal cell phones, using their phone’s messaging service. The nurses found that they are able to meet their patient needs more quickly. Your assessment also discovered that a nurse used their personal cell phone to take a picture of a patient’s foot ulcer. The picture was posted on social media as a reminder to diabetics about the importance of managing their blood sugars. As the nursing education manager it is your responsibility to ensure staff is following the hospital policies and your technology assessment has highlighted that the staff is in urgent need of HIPAA training and Smart Phone use.

    Using the scenario above create mandatory training for all staff using PowerPoint with voice including the following:

    • Examine personal Smart Phone use and its implications for Healthcare
    • Identify and explain a minimum of 3 unethical uses of Smartphones in healthcare (including text messaging and pictures)
    • Discuss the potential benefits of appropriate Smartphone use in healthcare
    • Examine judicious use of Social Media and its implications in Healthcare
    • Potential benefits to the appropriate use of Social Media in Healthcare
    • Identify a minimum of 3 unethical uses of Social Media (as reviewed by NCSBN)
    • Describe regulatory bodies and Ethical Frameworks used to protect Personal Health Information (PHI)
    • Investigate the role of HIPAA, HITECH, and the Nursing Code of Ethics
    • Determine the legal consequences associated with unethical or illegal Smart Phone and Social Media use.
    • Format
    • Standard American English (correct grammar, punctuation, etc.)
    • Logical, original, and insightful
    • Professional organization, style, and mechanics in APA format
    • Submit the document through Grammarly to correct errors before submission

  3. Resources