Introduction
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The purpose of this assignment is to explore the baccalaureate nursing essentials that I found important in this course, and to provide a description of how the course objectives met these essentials. Specifically, this paper includes a detailed explanation of the course objectives, how I achieved them by comparing the achievements with the requirements of the nursing essentials. To achieve this, I will provide a description of how the discussions in class and the learning relates to the nursing objectives.
The Essentials
A baccalaureate nursing essential that was important in this course would be Essential VIII, which is about professionalism and professional values (AACN, 2008). This nursing essential highlights the importance of maintaining professionalism in the nursing profession, where the nurse demonstrates consistent core values in achieving the optimal health and wellness of patients. Under this essential, nurses are expected to observe ethics, apply the principles of respect, communication, and altruism. This nursing essential was therefore critical for this course because it helped meet the course objective where learners are expected to relate the ethical issues that affect access and delivery of healthcare services in the country.
Another important nursing essential is Essential VI, which entails inter-professional communication and collaboration for improving patient health outcomes. For this nursing essential, the baccalaureate program prepares the nurse to develop effective communication techniques that include negotiation and conflict resolution, as well as develop collaborative and team building strategies (AACN, 2008). The nurse also should demonstrate how to develop unique nursing perspectives when working with inter-professional teams with the goal of optimizing patient outcomes. This nursing essential was important for this course because it helped me as the student meet the course objective of exploring the various nursing roles and communication techniques within a healthcare setting.
Lastly, Essential V, which is about healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, was important in this course. This essential provides the nurse an opportunity to learn about the broader contexts of healthcare such as how policies are made, how they influence healthcare, financing healthcare, and patient reimbursement (AACN, 2008). I found this nursing essential crucial for this course because it exposed me to information that helped me meet course objectives such as exploring the concepts of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory requirements, and the current payment reforms in healthcare, among other related concepts in nursing administration and finance.
Introspection
In this introspective section, I will describe what I learned from this course based on these course outcomes and how they relate to The Essentials. An important concept I learned in this course is maintaining professionalism as a nurse working in a healthcare facility and interacting with patients. Under this essential in nursing, I am expected to apply ethical principles while executing my duties as a nurse, which is important to patient health outcomes. I learned about ethical principles such as altruism, patient autonomy, respect, beneficence, and non-maleficence, and how to apply them as a nurse. In hindsight, I believe that this nursing essential was instrumental in helping me achieve the course objective of examining the ethical and legal practices in nursing. For instance, I learned that as a nurse, I should ensure that I uphold patient privacy and act as a patient advocate when handling issues related to patient privacy, and respecting patient autonomy. As a nurse, I learned that being altruistic is the ultimate form of showing patient care and providing them with comfort because altruism entails showing concern and promoting the welfare of others. The cornerstone of the nursing profession is providing care and comfort to patients. Therefore, observing the nursing ethical principles, as taught through the essential discussed, enabled me to purposely provide the patient with care and comfort, since it would be my professional duty.
Essential VI, which entails inter-professional communication and collaboration for improving patient health outcomes, helped me achieve the course objective of develop effective communication techniques that include negotiation and conflict resolution. The goal of this nursing essential is to provide the nurse with the skill in collaboration, through enhancing their communication styles and techniques. For instance, I learned about handling nurse incivility through a technique referred to as cognitive rehearsal. This technique refers to the mental rehearsal of coping mechanisms in conflict or uncivil situations (Chapman, 2017). By learning this technique, I learned how to effectively communicate should I find myself in tense situations with other nurses Introspective Paper NURS 414: Health Policy, Finance and Regulatory Environments – Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice.
Additionally, this essential exposed me to knowledge on inter-professional collaboration, and how to achieve it. I learned how to interact with other nurses in a professional manner that would create a safe and positive workplace culture with minimal conflicts. Conflict management was therefore a significant point of learning in this course, under this nursing essential. Some of the significant conflict resolution strategies I learned from taking this course include accommodating, compromising, and collaborating (Stanley, 2016). For example, I learned that if I find myself in a conflict with a nurse, and I can compromise and reach an agreement with them, I should consider a compromise, to maintain the peace and reduce chances of incivility which adversely affects patient health outcomes.
Essential V is about healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, and it helped achieve the course objective of how policies are made, how they influence healthcare, financing healthcare, and patient reimbursement. For example, through this nursing essential, I learned about the advocacy process and how to introduce bill into Congress, and how to identify and approach a sponsor, to ensure the bill passes into law. One of the learning points was that as a nurse advocate, I should select a bill sponsor who is in the majority party, because the sponsor affects the fate of the bill (Mason et al., 2019). I also learned more about role boundaries and how to respect them, to avoid the development of conflict. I learned that role boundaries is among the leading causes of nurse incivility and conflicts at the workplace. For instance, a nurse could perform the role of another, leading to worse patient health outcomes, which would lead to action against the nurse. I believe that taking this course was crucial for my career as a nurse because of the various concepts I learned, as guided by the baccalaureate nursing essentials.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the main nursing essentials important to me as a nursing today include essentials V, VI, and VII. These essentials include issues such as healthcare policy formation, nurse professionalism and professional values such as nursing ethics, and inter-professional collaboration and conflict resolution. These essentials relate to the course objectives of developing effective communication and conflict resolution strategies, learn about policy formation and financing requirements in healthcare, and relating the ethical issues that affect access and delivery of healthcare services. Some of the course outcomes involved include learning conflict resolution skills, proper communication, how to select a sponsor when performing the role of advocacy and lobbying for policies, and applying ethical values such as patient privacy and autonomy, among other learning points.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Washington, DC. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education-resources/BaccEssentials08.pdf .
Chapman, R. (2017). Integrating clinical hypnosis and CBT. Springer Publishing Company.
Mason, D., Dickson, E., McLemore, M., & Perez, G. (2019). Policy & politics in nursing and health care. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Stanley, D. (2016). Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare. Wiley.
Introspective Paper NURS 414: Health Policy, Finance and Regulatory Environments – Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice
NURS 414: Health Policy, Finance and Regulatory Environments
Introspective Paper Guidelines for the Written Assignment
Purpose
The purpose of this written assignment is to provide the student an opportunity to review The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice that are applicable to the course outcomes for the course on health policy, finance and regulatory environments.
Course Outcomes
This written assignment provides evidence of the student’s ability to meet the following course outcomes:
Explore the historical aspects of healthcare policy, finance and regulatory environments. (PO4)
Describe current payment reform efforts as related to essential nursing knowledge. (PO4)
Relate healthcare issues regarding the development and reevaluation process pertaining to healthcare policy. (PO1, PO4)
Examine ethical, legal and regulatory perspectives in the analysis of the professional practice environment and organizational culture. (PO4)
Apply healthcare economics to the strategic planning process with consideration of current economic, legal and political influences. (PO4)
Define essential skills for acquisition of positions of influence on boards or in public policy. (PO4)
Relate sociocultural, ethical, economic and political issues affecting the access, delivery and utilization of health care services. (PO1, PO4)
Explore professional nursing roles, communication techniques, and ethical decision-making models applicable to health care and clinical nursing leadership within complex health care systems. (PO2, PO4, PO5)
Baccalaureate Essentials
The nine Baccalaureate Essentials are:
Essential I: Liberal Education for Baccalaureate Generalist Nursing Practice
o A solid base in liberal education provides the cornerstone for the practice and education of
nurses.
Essential II: Basic Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Care and Patient Safety
o Knowledge and skills in leadership, quality improvement, and patient safety are necessary to
provide high quality healthcare.
Essential III: Scholarship for Evidence Based Practice
o Professional nursing practice is grounded in the translation of current evidence into practice.
Essential IV: Information Management and Application of Patient Care Technology
o Knowledge and skills in information management and patient care technology are critical in the
delivery of quality patient care.
Essential V: Healthcare Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments
o Healthcare policies, including financial and regulatory, directly and indirectly influence the nature
and functioning of the healthcare system and thereby are important considerations in
professional nursing practice.
Essential VI: Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes
o Communication and collaboration among healthcare professionals are critical to delivering high
quality and safe patient care.
Essential VII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health
o Health promotion and disease prevention at the individual and population level are necessary to
improve population health and are important components of baccalaureate generalist nursing
practice.
Essential VIII: Professionalism and Professional Values
o Professionalism and the inherent values of altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and
social justice are fundamental to nursing.
Essential IX: Baccalaureate Generalist Nursing Practice
o The baccalaureate-graduate nurse is prepared to practice with patients, including individuals,
families, groups, communities, and populations across the lifespan and across the continuum of
healthcare environments.
o The baccalaureate graduate understands and respects the variations of care, the increased
complexity, and the increased use of healthcare resources inherent in caring for patients.
(AACN, 2008)
Submission Due Date
This written assignment is due in Week 7 by Sunday (Day 7) at 11:59 PM (EST). (The week begins on Monday (Day 1) and ends on Sunday (Day 7).
Requirements
The Introspective Paperis worth 100 points and will be graded on the incorporation of The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education related to the course objectives as outlined in the grading rubric.
The assignment must be written using Microsoft Word (a part of Microsoft Office) and saved as a MS Word document ending in .docx.
Review the Grading Rubric for each section to be developed.
The length of the paper is to be no less than 3 full pages and no greater than 6 full pages, excluding the title page and reference pages.
APA format is required with both a title page and reference page.
Use the following headings in your paper.
Introduction
Identification ofThe Essentials
Introspective
Conclusion
These headings must be Level 1 headers (upper and lower case, centered and bolded). (See the APA Manual for format of Level 1 headers.)
Please be sure to include the reference for The Essentials on your reference page.
The reference for the Essentials must be listed on the reference page.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008). The essentials of
baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Washington, DC.
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education-resources/BaccEssentials08.pdf (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
Directions
Introduction (1 paragraph)
In the Introduction, clearly identify the purpose of the paper and write a general paragraph about the topic to be discussed.
Identification of The Essentials (1 paragraph)
Write a well-developed paragraph identifying how The Essentials that were important in this course and provide a brief description of how The Essentials were met in your own words.)
Introspective (5 to 10 paragraphs)
Identify the course objectives and describe what you learned from this course based on these course objectives and how they relate to The Essentials. Please review the course objectives, discussions, readings and The Essentials to help complete the assignment.
Conclusion (1 paragraph)
Briefly and succinctly summarize your main points including the purpose of the paper. (Please do not introduce new information into your conclusion.)
Template for Assignment
Please use the template for this assignment. (Please remove any wording highlighted in yellow before submitting your assignment.)
Introspective Paper NURS 414: Health Policy, Finance and Regulatory Environments – Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice
