Future Nursing Core Competencies (NOFNCC)

INTRODUCTION

One of the key objectives is to facilitate the transitioning nurses into their practice settings. In the case of a BSN in the post-anesthesia care unit placement, it would help him acquire the requisite knowledge, attitude, and skills relevant for a certified nurse practice as a PACU nurse. Thereafter, they can develop further and specialize. The core competencies are: patient-centered care (PCC), leadership, communication, professionalism, systems-based practice, teamwork and collaboration, informatics and technology (IT), safety, quality improvement and evidence-based care.

This paper seeks to compare and contrast three of the NOFNCC in relation to the responsibilities, expectations, and opportunities of a student nurse (BSN) in PACU. It first explores each of the three core competencies – PCC, professionalism and IT. It then discusses the similarities of the three. Lastly, it pairs the competencies and compares them in turn with PACU practice in perspective: PCC and professionalism; PCC and IT, and, Professionalism and IT.

NURSE OF THE FUTURE NURSING CORE COMPETENCIES (NOFNCC)

Patient-centered care entails the provision of holistic care with the preferences, values, and needs of a patient is perspective (NOF Nursing Core Competencies, 2016).

In the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), it would require the recognition and respect of the patients’ designee as a full partner in the delivery of care (Weiser, 2009). The nurse is responsible for rendering age and culturally appropriate, safe, and effective care even though the patient is unconscious. The nursing training gives him the jurisdiction to identify the components of nursing processes appropriate to the patient and family.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Future

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

He has an opportunity to exercise his wits in prioritizing the care. It is expected that he would utilize scientific inquiry by not only collecting but also analyzing data so as to adequately intervene.

Professionalism is the component that restricts a nurse to deliver standard-based care. It ensures that the care rendered are within moral, altruistic, legal, ethical, regulatory, and humanistic principles (NOF Nursing Core Competencies, 2016). A student nurse is thus expected to demonstrate the knowledge of legal and regulatory principles governing practices in the PACU. He should commit to lifelong learning and focus at remaining accountable to his own nursing practice. In the PACU, this would require critical thinking and clinical reasoning as well as application of the code of ethics. This way, he can confidently defend his course of action and maintain a positive image of nursing. He should be able to act as the patients advocate with a provision to receive criticism from peers.

The nurse of the future (NOF) should be able to use IT to analyze data in order to arrive at critical decisions that would optimize patients’ outcomes (NOF Nursing Core Competencies, 2016). He is expected to be proficient in the understanding of basic computer science concepts. He would be responsible for utilizing technology to collect and store data in the electronic health record (HER). Additionally, he should be able to not only retrieve data from the EHR but also aggregate the data to come up with new knowledge that can advise care. Furthermore, he should utilize available data to conduct researches such that he can deliver evidence-based care. In the PACU, the equipment and monitors are put in place so as to collect vital data of the patients (Weiser, 2009). A BSN is thus expected to augment the data with his own assessment and document them electronically. He should also be able to strive at keeping himself up to date in the current practices so as to ensure quality and up-to-date evidence-based care for his patient.

The three concepts bear some similarities. To begin with, they all dictate that the NOF will have to be proficient in the knowledge required for each concept. The knowledge advises their attitude towards nursing practice. The knowledge and attitudes then affect the actual practice, that is, the skill-set of a student. Knowledge affects attitude and skills. In a study conducted, the attitude had the highest score followed by knowledge and skills, and finally the practice. We can argue that a BSNs attitude toward competence would affect how much they know, and the end product is a certain level of practice that tallies with the former. Patient-centered care and professionalism: both core competencies aim at providing quality care to patients in ways that are both ethically and culturally acceptable. While the PCC focuses on the values of the care recipient, professionalism ensures a student nurse is equipped to streamline his practice to the stipulated guidelines. The importance of guidelines lies in its effectiveness in standardizing evidence-based care irrespective of the clinical exposure of a practitioner. Conflicts are likely to arise between professionalism and patient-based care demand. In the PACU, professionally, a nurse may want to offer acute cardiac life support. However, he should be keen to refrain from the task if the patient or the designee had stipulated a ‘do-not-resuscitate’ order.

Patient-centered care and informatics and technology: while patient-centered care aims to collect subjective data, IT strives to primarily aggregate the objective data. Collectively, the two core competencies provide the requisite input for a nurse practitioner to render quality service. Often, PCC would utilize personal reports or overt preferences which tend to vary from an individual to another – thus, providing a basis for individualized care. On the other hand, informatics works with the recommended limits as the baseline against which interventions are applied. Additionally, IT could facilitate PCC by enhancing communication and consultations with the family of the patient. PACU is a restricted area, therefore, phone calls could be the only way to interact with the patient’s family.

Professionalism and informatics and technology: IT facilitates professionalism by providing a system for aggregation and analysis of data. It makes research materials easily accessible, thus, a student nurse can conveniently self-equip for professional growth (Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian, & Navidhamidi, 2014). While professionalism encourages an individual to internalize content, informatics and technology could encourage laxity in this area. The advancements in IT could also hamper professionalism; a student nurse may opt not to get out there and experience the criticism by opting to moment-by-moment scavenge through the IT. The danger with this kind of acquiring information lies in the reduced capacity to retain content . Darvish et al advocate for planned learning as it enhances retention.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the core competencies are valuable tools in professional development and delivery of quality care. The right professional discipline and conduct is a vehicle for practice within the confines of regulations and standard operations. The IT can facilitate professional development as well as customized care. The customized care would have the values and rights of the patient in mind to the benefit of delivering patient-centered care. Thus, NOFNCC could help a student nurse in PACU acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for specializing in that area of practice.