Question
Write a paragraph reflection for each assigned AACN Essential.
Identify how each essential was met during your nursing program.
Provide at least one example for each essential to be completed.
Organize by listing each example with its corresponding essential outcome.
Visit the AACN website for more information on the essentials.
https://www.aacnnursing.org/Education-Resources/AACN-Essentials
For each Essential: write the entire essential as an APA heading bold, write one paragraph discussing the essential and cite a scholarly source( EAACN), and write a second paragraph discussing how you met each essential during the BSN program, provide specific examples.
Essential IV: Information Management and Application of Patient Care Technology
Essential V: Health Care Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments
Essential VI: Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes
Solution
Week 4 Assignment: Essentials IV–VI
Essential IV: Information Management and Application of Patient Care Technology
Information Management and Application of Patient Care Technology is a very informative course. It introduces students to technology applied in healthcare, something that is critical for all learners to understand. The essential topic require a student to develop an appreciation for information management and technology in healthcare. The use of technology continues to change the practice environment and several aspects of care, and that has a profound effect on the provision of care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2020). I found the essential to be among the most important since technology has the potential to radically transform the provision of care. As someone who believes in the use of technology for the good of patients, this essential has proven to be quite an eye-opener, showing us how nurses are expected to interact with technology as they provide care to patients.
Nurses who have studied about technology in healthcare will use technology to improve patient outcomes. Having covered the essential, I feel better- prepared to apply evidence in the application of various technologies that have the potential to enhance patient safety, and quality of outcomes. While covering the essential, I gave a presentation on emerging technologies, and the role that they will play in addressing patient safety going forward. I demonstrated how technology can potentially reduce medication errors, a recurrent concern in practice today. We also engaged in debates on ways of promoting the use of evidence when applying technology in healthcare whereby each individual proposed an idea on the issue.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 1: Demonstrate skills in using patient care technologies, information systems, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice.
Outcome 2: Understand the use of CIS systems to document interventions related to achieving nurse sensitive outcomes.
Outcome 7: Recognize the role of information technology in improving patient care outcomes, and creating a safe care environment.
Essential V: Healthcare Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments
Healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments is an essential that is critical for nurses since each needs to be conversant of the external factors that affect their practice. The course, thus prepares nurse for the issues that they will face in the world out there, and which will be pertinent to their practice. A nurse has to be knowledgeable about issues of policy, and regulation as they have significant implications for their work (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2020). Studying the essential gave me a new perspective on how the various regulations, and policies affect the work of a nurse. While studying the essential, we explored how health policy affects various aspects of health such as access and quality, and the outcomes of care. The essential required analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the issues discussed. I now feel the need to actively contribute to policy development once I proceed to the practice environment for the sake of patients, and the profession. Most importantly, I got the ability to analyze issues critically and to see how they might affect the ability of a nurse to carry out their duties.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 1: Demonstrate basic knowledge of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, including local, state, national, and global healthcare trends.
Outcome 2: Describe how health care is organized and financed, including the implications of business principles, such as patient and system cost factors.
Outcome 8: Discuss the implications of healthcare policy on issues of access, equity, affordability, and social justice in healthcare delivery.
Outcome 10: Articulate, through a nursing perspective, issues concerning healthcare delivery to decision makers within healthcare organizations, and other policy arenas.
Essential VI: Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes
As a nurse, one inevitably communicates and collaborates with others in the provision of services to patients. Covering this essential taught us ways in which we could communicate, and collaborate with others effectively, and the importance of doing so. I realized that communicating is not just about passing a message. Perhaps the greatest lesson in this essential was interdisciplinary collaboration in care delivery. It is clear that evidence calls for physicians, nurses, and other professionals offering care to collaborate as they provide care to patients. The collaboration results in critical synergies that guarantees enhanced outcome for patients (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2020). While covering the essential, we would occasionally engage in exercises to test our ability to work together as a team to deliver care. Such exercises are important as they provide hypothetical scenarios of what could happen in the care environment, and thus prepares individuals to handle the demands on communication, and inter-professional collaboration. Apart from that, learning this essential also teaches a student tools critical to proper communication such as respect for everyone and clarity of expression. Clearly, this essential is important for future nurses.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 2: Use inter and intra-professional communication, and collaborative skills to deliver evidence based patient centered care.
Outcome 4: Contribute the unique nursing perspective to inter-professional teams to optimize patient outcomes.
Outcome 5: Demonstrate appropriate teambuilding and collaborative strategies when working with inter-professional teams.
Essential 6: Advocate for high quality and safe patient care as a member of the interprofessional team.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2020). Baccalaureate Essentials Tool Kit. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/Education-Resources/Tool-Kits/Baccalaureate-Essentials-Tool-Kit