Differences in Competencies between ADN vs. BSN Essay

According to the society of Human Resources Management, competency means the knowledge and skills required to perform a job, which all contributes a positive outcome. Even though the competency among ADN and BSN are almost similar, there are slight variations based on the departments where the nurse work, such as management level of care and neonatal department. Good start of an introduction. Consider a topic sentence here that states: this paper will describe†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. An Associate Degree Nurse is one who completed the 2 year program or 3 year diploma this is not true, these 2 are different course by a school of nursing, community, or junior college. They demonstrate competencies in various aspect of patient care. ADNs are competent to perform assessment by collection of patient’s health history, including past medical and surgical history. They perform the physical assessment by gathering information, such as height and weight, vital signs, and head to foot assessment, including all body system. They are also competent to perform cognitive, psychosocial, spiritual, and functional level assessment. After assessing the patient, they find out the nursing diagnosis using their knowledge, skills, and experience. The ADN analyzes the patient’s condition using their age, cultural diversity, and risk factor. He/she then formulates and plans the care by prioritizing the patient’s need based on Maslow’s hierarchy needs, in which patient’s safety is the first importance. They formulate the plan of care by critical thinking, reflection, and problem solving skills. Before they implement the treatment regimen, they let the patient make health care choices by providing accurate and reliable information. The ADN are competent to delegate the patient care to other authorized health care personnel by giving relevant instructions and supervisions. They implement the treatment within his/her accepted professional nursing practice in a different clinical setting. They also make sure to give teaching about the treatment, which includes the effects and side effects of drugs and expected outcome. These all help the patient to alleviate their anxiety about the health status. Finally, they evaluate the outcome and effectiveness by reassessing and continuous monitoring. Moreover, ADNs provide physical competencies like gross and motor skills, strength, and mobility by moving and positioning the patient by using proper body mechanism. Their sensory perception provides a safe environment. They are competent in life saving practices, such as cardiac monitoring and airway management. They provide patient care by giving I.V, oral medications, blood transfusions and wound care. They demonstrate care and respectful behavior towards the patient, family, and other co-workers. Need to reference data within the text Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing is a 4 year bachelor program accredited by a college or university. A BSN has the same medicalbedside nursing skills of an ADN. He/she provides the same patient care by assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. They also have physical competencies and sensory perception. Apart from that, they do their clinical judgment by using their critical and analytic thinking, which they earned through researches and evidence based practices. They have sufficient emotional stability to be responsible and accountable during a highly stressful event. They know how to deal with unexpected and changing environment. They show interpersonal skills and communication skills by interacting positively with patient, family, and large communities both in verbal and written form. Their logical and analytic thinking in patient management will help them to acquire higher education. Moreover, they creatively respond to continuously changing health system. Good review of BSN competencies. Again, need to reference within the text. An ADN acquired knowledge and skills from years of experience in clinical practice. They work with patients in a relatively short time. However, a BSN has knowledge and skills based on their researches, evidence based practice, leadership, and management. Their skills help them to provide a better patient care in a short time period. For an ADN, the nursing is a job and have little commitment to the work. Without considering the long term results, they move from one job to another. However, BSN is a career, which is a life time dedication that requires development and on-going learning. They can function at high intellectual levels and carry a strong professional identity and follow code of ethics. They are more accountable, independent, and responsible. Nursing care and approaches to decision-making are different based upon the educational preparations. For example, we had a 50 year old patient in our floor that came with left hip fracture. The patient underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of left hip. After 4 hours of post anesthesia care, the patient came to the floor. The ADN, who is the primary care nurse, assesses the patient and carried out all post-op orders. The patient was drowsy and was on morphine PCA. After 2 hours, the patient suddenly woke-up with pain in the left hip. The ADN gave more pain medicine and monitored the respiratory status. All of a sudden patient complained of shortness of breath. The nurse found the patient’s oxygen saturation dropped to 82 percent. She stopped the PCA pump and put the patient on 2 liters of oxygen yet the patient was complaining about severe pain in her hip. Apparently, the patient continued to complained of chest pain and her oxygen level continued the same. The RN called the charge nurse, who is a BSN. She assessed the patient and went through the patient history. Suddenly, she called the rapid response team; meanwhile, she ordered a stat chest x-ray by thinking that patient had a pulmonary embolism and transferred the patient to ICU. Later, we came to know the patient had pulmonary embolism. In this situation, the RN gave the basic treatments according to the knowledge from her experience. On the other hand, the BSN treated the patient from her critical thinking and high level of knowledge, which saved the patient’s life. Good patient care scenario The ADN can handle the critical patient situation very minimally by using her basic knowledge, skills, and experience with the help of other person. However, the BSN can handle the same situation independently with his/her critical thinking. Different level nurses have different roles in a hospital, even though they have same preliminary education about providing forthe patient care. The job expectations, patient interactions and contact are different in perspective of the RN’s and BSN’s duty. Good conclusion . . References Catalano, J.T. (2003).Nursing now: Today’s issues, tomorrow’s trends. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis. Need to put title into italics Competencies and Performance Standards Essential for Nursing Practice.( 2011) St Louis University. Retrieved from http://www.slu.edu/x19905.xml Hollis, Forster, RN (2011) ADN vs. BSN Retrieved from need to include date of retrieval http://nursinglink.monster.com/education/articles/3842-adn-vs-bsn