The Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies aim to prepare nurses for evolving healthcare needs. Two competencies that I believe will have a significant impact on my future professional nursing practice are:
Patient-Centered Care: This competency is vital because it emphasizes the importance of individualized care, taking into consideration patients’ unique needs, preferences, and values. As a nurse, focusing on patient-centered care will enable me to build stronger rapport with patients, enhance their overall experience, and improve health outcomes by tailoring care plans to their specific circumstances.
Interprofessional Collaboration and Teamwork: In the increasingly complex healthcare environment, effective collaboration among healthcare professionals is crucial. This competency promotes effective communication and teamwork, which are essential for providing comprehensive patient care. By embracing interprofessional collaboration, I can contribute to a more holistic approach to patient care and facilitate better outcomes.
As for the AACN BSN Essential, I believe “Essential VII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health” is crucial for improving quality in my future nursing practice. This essential emphasizes the nurse’s role in health promotion and disease prevention on a population level. By applying this essential, I can actively engage in preventive measures, health education, and community outreach, which can lead to better health outcomes and more cost-effective healthcare delivery in the long run. This proactive approach aligns with the shifting focus of healthcare towards prevention and wellness, making it an essential aspect of quality nursing practice.
Very well said. I feel that patient-centered care is a very vital competency. In order for us to be the professional nurse that will bring about positive change in the profession, the patient has to be the target. I feel that prevention is a huge key to healthcare. One of the issues I feel we currently have is poor education or poor attention to current information by some providers. I work in several genres of medicine at this time. One thing that I notice is that a lot of providers don’t attempt to utilize evidence based practice with all of their ministrations. For example, I work in a rehabilitation hospital. The providers prescribe a lot of narcotic pain medication and then neglect to wean the patient off said medication, leaving the patient to possibly develop a dependence on this medication and possibly causing this patient to become addicted to the medication. The provider either doesn’t know the damage he/she causes by not weaning the patient off the medicine prior to discharge , or feels that it is not important to ensure the patient’s safety by weaning them of the addictive medication to prevent addiction to the medication. This is an exclusion of patient-centered care, as the patient’s safety and well-being is being ignored in that instance. Interprofessional Collaboration and teamwork would help to problem solve and prevent this from being an issue, and ultimately protect the patient from harm, and deliver optimal health outcomes for the patient. Thank you for your post. I appreciate the thought process.
Hi Amber,
The nurse practitioner is a very important player in the quality care delivered to the patient. The face of the entity for which you will be employed will be represented by the whole team. It is important that you remain professional in order to remain a leader the team will be willing to follow orders from and trust your decision-making skills. I have been employed under some providers that I would not trust their judgment because their decisions weren’t indicative of optimal outcomes for the patient, and did not help the patient to attain baseline outcomes. Professionalism would be best paired with patient-centered care in my opinion, when looking to be a leader. Communication is another competency I would place ahead of leadership. Leadership requires all of the above. I feel that all of us can be great leaders as long as we all employ effective communication, professionalism, and patient centered care. It was difficult for us to have to choose which competencies would be the most influential in our nursing practice because they all work hand-in-hand to create the best leader possible in the healthcare world. Professionalism is a huge responsibility for the professional nurse, as well. Nurses are people and it is sometimes less practical to be professional due to emotion-provoking situations. To remain professional is nearly virtuous, for lack of a better term. I wish you all the best in your journey, and I hope that the competencies you choose help you to uphold the best nursing practice possible for your profession.