Part 1: Continuing Education
Benefits of Continuing Education in Nursing
Nursing is a profession that is key in any healthcare setting due to its significance in fostering full-time balance in the condition of the patients. The profession is a supplementary to the Medicine profession, dentistry, among other specialist technical professions in healthcare and medicine. According to Blais, Hayes, Kozier and Erb (2006), knowledge advancement in the profession through continued studies is considered a primary factor in increasing value of services rendered by involved nurses. Continuing education in the nursing profession has several benefits to both an individual’s career and people expecting services from the specific person. Advancement of education within the nursing line of profession helps an individual make better healthcare decisions. Quality of decisions made in the healthcare industry depends on the person’s level of experience, which in most cases is gained from many years of practice and exposure to extensive knowledge. Through furthering education, a nurse can apply data for purposes of rational judgement in different cases.
Improved patient care is another result of advanced education in the nursing profession. Advanced education equips a nurse with special skills and techniques to provide high quality patient care services. Classes in high-level nursing education enshrine several projects which expose the professional to common dynamic problems within healthcare, hence perfecting their problem-solving abilities and professional practice. Educational programs such as a Master degree in nursing provides an individual with the necessary skills to develop and implement health programs within a social setting. Therefore, people around the professional benefit from such programs which might include jigger campaigns, polio campaigns, and HIV/AIDS awareness, among other health campaigns. Increase in community health awareness reduces disease prevalence in a given area, thus accomplishing sustainable development goals.
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Advanced education in nursing further exposes professionals to better job prospects in the industry. The nursing profession has several job opportunities. However, a higher educational degree qualifies an individual for numerous lucrative and career-fulfilling positions in both the healthcare industry and teaching in tertiary institutions. A Registered Nurse can continue their education and receive promotions to positions such as Chief Nurse, Matron, among other positions which attract lucrative salaries of up to $150,000 a year (Muench et al., 2015).
A nurse who becomes reluctant to advancing their education is regarded as misinformed and primitive. Every profession demands educational advancement to increase employability in future, career growth, and improve people’s lives around them. The nursing profession, just like other professions has many incoming young talents who have the desire to advance their education and progress in their careers ( Blais et al., 2006) . Thus, staying at the same level of qualification for a long time implies that an individual will be faced out by competition from young talents. In the worst-case scenario, the individual would be replaced. Additionally, the profession is dynamic due to changes and developments in technology that affect healthcare systems. Therefore, obsoleteness is inevitable for a nurse who is hesitant to further their education.
Continuing education is an essential factor in improving skills of a professional. Programs in nursing education have platforms such as capstone projects, research and field work, and extensive course units which cover a wider scope of every medical concept. A nurse attending such programs is thus enriched with knowledge to solve real-world problems through applying capstone projects, and a deeper understanding as well as mastery of key medical concepts ( Blais et al., 2006) . For instance, an advanced degree in nursing exposes a nurse to research on Ebola in the Western part of Africa, its symptoms, and control measures; this knowledge would benefit the individual intellectually. The world economy as well as that of individual countries and states changes with time and so does the cost of living. Therefore, to cope up with the rising cost of living, a person needs a stable income that would sustain them together with their dependents while allowing them to save too. Blais et al., (2006) explained that advancing education is a mens of getting access to promotions at the work place, which implies an increase in salary, hence enabling a person to meet clothing, housing, and food expenses while saving too for the future. Staying at one level would inconvenience a person and constrain their expenditure.
Part 2: The Future of Nursing
I agree with the text’s authors on every topic of discussion about future of nursing profession. Blais et al., (2006) explained that nurses face multiple challenges due to the dynamic global nature, which includes new developments in diseases, demographics, healthcare laws, as well as technology. Changes in these factors have been so rapid that nurses have had problems adjusting, which is a major challenge. However, the challenge also create opportunities for individuals in the profession to advance their learning and equip themselves with needed skills to handle upcoming problems.
Development of new diseases and increased prevalence of certain diseases have commanded new health reforms and laws in many countries including the United States (Jakovljevic et al., 2016). Proper healthcare ranks among the big four agendas for every country and also a primary target for sustainable development. Therefore, as countries pass laws and healthcare reforms, the profession has been affected; nurses have had to advance their education to meet new standards required by law which include, but not limited to, collaboration with other healthcare professionals, full practice based on qualification level, better research and data collection on key issues affecting healthcare systems in the society.
Population changes and demographical changes have also had a significant effect on the nursing profession. The aging population has been on a tremendous increase; further it is projected to maintain the trend in the next 40 years ( Blais et al., 2006) . The implication of such a trend is creation of pressure on finances and reduction of the labor force. Thus, the profession will be inconvenienced with man power against the increasing demand for nurses across the world. The current demographics also indicate that women above the age of 40 years are giving birth more than other age groups under 40 years (Dietl et al., 2015). The trend is mainly influenced by the increased desire among women to pursue career growth before settling in marriage and starting families. Pregnant women above 40 years are a delicate case, hence, require a special medical care which implies that nurses in future should adjust their skills to learn how best to handle such cases.
Nursing has been subjected to several factors since its introduction which have helped its growth to the current level. The Second World War had a major impact towards the profession; deterioration of quality in the profession and also shortage of nurses. However, on the bright side, the war also led to introduction of women professionals in the career. The World War II absorbed many men into the army, hence, forcing women to join the nursing profession to take care of injured soldiers during war (Tasker, 2018). Since to many women the concept was still new as well as considering urgency of their labor, proper training was not administered. Quality of services reduced by a great margin, thus, demanding a revamp to the profession. The United States government among other professional bodies introduced rules that required advancement of education for nurses.
Other factors that have had significant impact on the profession include technological advancement, rise of women social movements, and cost management plan by governments. Technology has introduced machinery and modern tools used in medical centers to enable nurses and physicians handle patients efficiently. In the past, nurses were required to use their physical eyes, patient history, and other senses to determine patient condition and also diagnosis. However, with growth in technology, laser machines, advanced X-ray machines among other tools have been developed. Nurses have since had an ample time to diagnose patients accurately hence improving patient care. The rise of women social movements has impacted the profession through promoting enrollment of women in the career especially in leadership positions ( Blais et al., 2006) . Such diversity has contributed richly to better decision-making processes within the healthcare system in the United States. Women have dominated the profession across the fifty-six states in the country. Cost management by the government has influenced introduction of medical insurance policies to citizens who access healthcare at a low cost compared to the past.
Therefore, more resources have been allocated in improving healthcare services, remuneration, and medical equipment. Nurses have thus enjoyed a conducive work environment from such developments. According to Blais et al., (2006), future of the profession is open to several improvements; technology, education, commercialization of healthcare, and healthcare literacy in the community. Technology will be a primary player in advancing the profession as well as healthcare. There exist modern developments on artificial intelligence and robotics which are projected to influence diagnosis of diseases, treatment of patients with specific medical conditions, and administration of medical prescriptions to patients (Archibald & Barnard, 2018). Machines will be incorporated with various medical variables to help solve medical problems within healthcare settings. Therefore, role of nurses will shift from traditional practice to specialized practice. Education at high levels of learning will thus enshrine machine learning as a crucial component of courses offered for nurses. Healthcare will over time become a commercial activity involving buying and selling of commodities and healthcare services due to such growth in technology. For instance, in the past, pregnancy tests were only done in medical centers which is no longer the case; currently, pregnancy kits are sold in medical centers and pharmacies. Additionally, increased healthcare awareness in the community is projected to continue over years to the point that nursing care on minor conditions will be community-based in the sense that personal diagnosis will be easy for ordinary citizens. Therefore, nurses will shift their focus to advanced illnesses and, medical conditions, hence spurring specialization, and medical breakthroughs in the profession.
Conclusion
Nursing profession is expected to grow and improve over years with introduction of robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and changes in population demographics. Thus, individuals currently in the profession as well as joining practitioners have an opportunity to better their skills and benefit from the upcoming developments in the near future. Considering that the profession’s future is expected to demand high specialized skills and abilities, advancing education becomes beneficial to professionals in the industry and the community. Grabbing the opportunity will likely expose them to multiple job openings, lucrative salaries, increased knowledge and skills, improved patient care and foster community awareness on health.
References
Archibald, M. M., & Barnard, A. (2018). Futurism in nursing: Technology, robotics and the fundamentals of care. Journal of clinical nursing , 27 (11-12), 2473-2480.
Blais, K., Hayes, J. S., Kozier, B., & Erb, G. L. (2006). Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives . Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Dietl, A., Cupisti, S., Beckmann, M. W., Schwab, M., & Zollner, U. (2015). Pregnancy and obstetrical outcomes in women over 40 years of age. Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde , 75 (8), 827.
Jakovljevic, M., Vukovic, M., Chen, C. C., Antunovic, M., Dragojevic-Simic, V., Velickovic-Radovanovic, R. & Antunovic, M. (2016). Do health reforms impact cost consciousness of health care professionals? Results from a nation-wide survey in the Balkans. Balkan medical journal , 33 (1), 8.
Muench, U., Sindelar, J., Busch, S. H., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2015). Salary differences between male and female registered nurses in the United States. Jama , 313 (12), 1265-1267.
Tasker, Y. (2018). Soldiers' Stories: Military Women in Cinema and Television since World War II . Duke University Press.
