Types of Programs in Higher/Advance Education

Contents
 Introduction of Advance Nursing Education
 Characteristic of Advance Nursing
 Trends and Issue of Nursing education
 Ways to develop Advance Nursing Education

Introduction
 Nursing has been called the oldest of the art and youngest of the profession.
 Nursing education is a professional education, dynamic by its own nature.
 Nursing education is a professional education which is consciously and systematically
planned and implemented through instructions and discipline and aims the
harmonious development of the physical, intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual and
aesthetic power or abilities of the students in order to render professional nursing care
to people of all ages, in all phases of health and illness, in a variety of setting in the
best and possible manner.
 The study of nursing practice for ways to improve it, and the ability of nursing's
advanced practitioners to generate new knowledge and to translate it both into
improved patient care and into the education of other nurses. These leadership
functions are closely associated with the advanced education of nurses.
 As the nurses role expanded, nurse become more specialized and standard of practice
required greater consistency in what nurses were permitted to do and could be
expected to do.

Advance Nursing
 Advance education for nurses has expanded greatly in the past 50 years benefiting the
discipline of nursing and enhancing the quality of patient care.
 Advance nursing education includes: Master degree, PhD, Postdoctoral fellowship,
Research, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists.
 According to the position statement of American Association of Nursing, Advanced
practice requires preparation at the master degree level and may include preparation
as a clinical nurse specialist, nurse anaesthetist, nurse midwife or nurse practitioner.
 Most of the advance practice nurse must have both a graduate degree and certification
in the speciality area.
 Advance Nursing practice encompasses advance theoretical and clinical skills, meet
the needs of the client, family and community, good leadership and managerial ability.
 Key topics for teaching these requirements include health care policy, organization of
the health care delivery system, health care economics and finance, ethical issue in
 health care, professional role development, theoretical foundations of nursing
practice, human diversity and social issue, health promotion and diseases prevention.
( Robinson and kish , 2001)
 The supply and demand for nurses with advanced education in three areas: nursing
administration, education (including both research and teaching), and clinical
specialty practice.

Characteristics of Advance Nursing

 Autonomous practice.
 Critical thinking and clinical judgement
 High level of decision making and problem solving
 Values based care
 Improving practice
 Practice across multiple setting
 Financial management
 Research utilization

Advance Nursing Education Benefits

 The main benefits of the nursing is production value that follows from the education
of nurses, the value of the services that the nurses provide in the market.
 The utility that an individuals may experience from education, more than receiving a
job and earning.
 In the present individuals are given the opportunity to stay in their region and study
and work, this is clearly beneficial to individual.
a. Improve Patient Care
When you further your education in the nursing field, you learn additional and advanced
techniques to improve the care of your patients. Your classes help you develop your skills
through the application of technology and data analysis. You also gain hands-on experience
through assignments like a capstone project, which allows you to identify problems, conduct
research-based interventions, search literature and propose solutions to improve your
professional practice.
b. Make Better Healthcare Decisions
As you advance your education, you will learn to make better healthcare decisions. This can
help you to achieve better patient outcomes, reduce costs and optimize operational efficiency.
Overall, the goal of furthering your nursing education is for you to understand and apply data
to make proper judgment calls through evidence-based practice.
c. Expand Your Knowledge of Healthcare
When you are enrolled in an advanced nursing program, you can expand your knowledge of
healthcare, regardless of which degree you choose. Popular topics of study include healthcare
research analysis, healthcare information systems and healthcare innovation. Upon
graduation, your newfound knowledge can help expand your career opportunities.
d. Increase Awareness in Community Health
When you further your education in the nursing field, you may have the knowledge and
awareness to play an integral role in driving change in community health. For example,
studying in an MSN program can provide the necessary skills to develop, plan, implement
and evaluate health programs and services to those in need. This can be extremely rewarding
as your advanced degree positively impacts those around you.
According to Kreeger, there are three main benefits of advanced nursing education:
1. Better Patient Care
 With more education, you may be able to provide a higher-quality of patient care.
You’ll also be better prepared to anticipate and address a larger variety of health
needs. By providing better care, you’ll feel the positive impact you’re making on
others’ lives.
2. Educational Diversity Builds Stronger Teams
 When a health care team is composed of professionals with different levels of
education, everyone benefits. Nurses who have more degrees and are further along
in their careers can serve as role models to less-experienced staff members by
passing along their acquired knowledge. This can be highly rewarding for the
mentor as it means applying your skills and expertise, and inspiring others. By
pursuing more education, you’ll be able to play a larger mentorship role to your
colleagues.
3. More Education Helps you Grow into your Role as a Leader
 As a nurse, you supervise patient safety and are often the main point of contact for
family members whose loved one is receiving care. You also are with your
patients throughout their treatment and the observer of its efficacy.
Throughout career as a nurse, you will assume various leadership roles. In
addition to providing care, you’ll also participate in initiatives, serve on
committees, and be part of research projects. Part of your growth as a leader will
rely on your pursuit of higher degrees: with more education, you become qualified
for increased responsibilities. As a leader, it’s vital that you are prepared to
contribute in these areas at your institution.
 Additional education can help grow nursing career. It can also contribute to sense
of well-being as it may help to achieve better patient outcomes and assist you as
you take on more responsibilities. By pursuing and achieving additional degrees,
you’re fulfilling your role as a leader at your institution while also making a
positive difference in others’ live.
Trends in Nursing Education
 Trends in nursing education include preparing nurses to prioritize preventive
healthcare and utilize telehealth technologies to enhance patient care and accessibility
 Emphasis on high tech – high touch approach
 Preparation of global nurses
 Ensuring a promising career
 Emergence of new specialities
 Increased opportunities for higher education
 Uniformity and standardization
 Coping with the impact of globalization
 Enhanced student status

Current Trends in Nursing Education

The changing roles and the current trends in nursing research are at the helm of what
influences the trends in nursing education. Nursing schools and nurse educators must adapt to
new technologies and advancements. The current trends a nurse educator needs to focus on
include the following:
 Understanding Data Collection and Analysis: Healthcare is shifting its focus to a
preventative style of medicine. To help monitor proper management, researchers
collect and analyze data to create quality measures. Nurses must understand this skill
to provide quality healthcare to their patients.
 Evolving Workplaces: Nurses do not work in hospital only. The role is continuously
changing, and they are working from home, in research institutes, and on cruise ships.
The possibilities are endless!
 Lifelong Learning: Nursing and healthcare are constantly evolving. Nurses must be
current with the trends in nursing research and base their care on evidence-based
practice. So many educational opportunities are available, and nurses are encouraged
to participate.
 Online Education: With the lack of nurse educators and the flexibility of online
learning, many nursing programs are utilizing virtual and hybrid educational styles.
Since the development of more realistic simulation technique nursing students can
easily transition into a real healthcare environment.
 Global Health and Disaster Preparedness: The pandemic also emphasized the
importance of nurses preparing for public health emergencies and community
disasters.

Challenges Faced in Nursing Education

With the evolving trends in nursing research and healthcare, many challenging in nursing
education impact the quality of education and the readiness of graduate nurses. Some of the
critical challenges in nursing education include the following:
 Nurse Educator Shortage: With a lack of nurses comes a shortage of nurse
educators. Many nurses prefer a clinical position due to the higher salary and reduced
administrative role. Additionally, many nurse educators are approaching retirement
age. The need for educators limits how many students a nursing school can admit,
which adds to the overall nursing shortage.
 Web-based Programs: Integrating technology into nursing programs can be
challenging for a few reasons. New technology is not always affordable, and students
may struggle to access these tools. Some nurse educators may need help
understanding how to incorporate them into their curriculum fluently.
 Updating Curriculums: Nursing curriculums must keep up with the constantly
changing healthcare environment, including advancing technology, new techniques,
and healthcare management models. Keeping the educational programs up to date on
current literature is essential for competent graduate nurses.
 Social Media Use: Over the last decade, social media use has increased, which can be
a valuable resource in building a community or developing partnerships. It can also be
a dangerous place for misinformation and shortcuts that nurses should not incorporate
into practice.

 Employment
 The current nursing shortage is related to an aging workforce, problem with
retaining licensed personnel and difficulty recruiting young people into the
workforce
 Many nurses left nursing for higher paying jobs
 Brain drain
 Changing Education
 Nursing education most make curriculum changes in order to prepare the nurses
who meet today and tomorrow health care needs.
 Leads to growth of knowledge.
 Before: knowledge on comfort measures hygiene and diet was important.
 Present: need specialization and advance knowledge hence specialization in
nursing as nurses can specialize in everything.
 Changing Practice
 Healthcare delivery has become more business oriented and knowing its effect on
nursing practice also important.
 Nurses perform many non-nursing function.
 But nurses should direct themselves towards developing the standard and
improving nursing.
  Lack of Effective leader and Manager
 Inadequate numbers of nurses and midwife as leader in this national and state
levels.
 Nurse leader and manager can help in improving the nursing practice nursing
research nursing education nursing administration and making policies.
 Nurse responsibility increased she has to act as a team leader who direct and
supervise.
 Have been advancement of nursing professional.
 Poor working condition
 Nurses working condition are risk factor for healthcare associated infection as
well as occupational injury and infection.
 Poor infrastructures.
 Nurse burnout
 Over worked
 Stress
 No breaks
 Improper Incentives and Pay Scales
 Emigration of nurses were for financial needs.
 The payment is still low compared to other profession.
 Transportation and safe housing.
 The payment scale is still low compared to other profession.
 Other Issues
 Less human resources.
 Less job in government.
 Brain drain
 Lack of autonomy
 No uniformity in pay structure.

Ways to Develop Advance Nursing Skill

1. Development of Flexible and Visionary Curriculum
  Curriculum should focus on changing concepts, new technologies, advanced
nursing skills.
 It should cover the all the aspect of personal, biological, environment and social
aspects.
2. Training
 Practice based learning improves the quality of patient care through certification
programs.
 Specialized nurses are usually required to obtain certification in their specialty
area which is good way to receive specialized training.
 Hospitals and private practice offer in house training for new equipment or to
improve nursing duties, providing an excellent opportunity for improving nursing
skills.
3. Continuing Education
 Continuing Education coursework in which interactive stimulations and scenarios
for skills development provides an excellent opportunity for improvement in
nursing practice.
 In order to keep licensure current, some states require a certain amount of
continuing education before a license to be renewed.
 It provides knowledge on current issues, develop new skills and develop
leadership abilities, new nursing policies and practices, new technologies.
4. Professional Conferences
 Conference are an important way for nurses to improve upon skills.
 It provides an opportunity for social networking with other professional, educating
each other with new care practice technique and providing an opportunity for
cross disciplinary learning.
 It also provide workshops and individualized training session that can help with
keeping up to date on new technologies and the improvement of nursing skills.

5. Mentor
 To improve nursing skills is to find a mentor in organization that can guide and
help with improving knowledge and skills.
 A senior level nurse or any expert can help with new skills and knowledge and
provide one to one training.
6. Advance Degree
 Improve nursing skills by getting an advanced degree in nursing.
 A master degree programe in nursing is an excellent way to stay current skills set ,
possible leading to promotions and leadership positions within the field of
nursing.
Reference
 Bhattarai S. Trends and Issue in Nursing ; Makalu publication House , 1 st edition ,
Dillibazar Kathmandu.
 Bhandari B . A Textbook of Trends and Issue ; Samiksha Publication Pvt . ltd 1 st
Edition 2073.
 Https://www.capella.edu.nursing
 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 www.healthecareers.com/career-resources/nurse-credentialing-and-education/
trends-challenges-nursing-education
 https://www.caringsupport.com/blog/addressing-current-issue-in-nursing-
education