The masters prepared nurse

Article and Masters Nurse The Masters Prepared Nurse Nursing needs articulate and well informed leaders and practitioners who are readyfor the changes that healthcare needs to make. They will need the ability to reason clinically and the ability not only to reach a decision through critical analysis of the evidence but also to be able to convince others that the decision is a valid one (Whyte, Lugton, & Fawcett, 2000). A nurse who is well educated and able to understand working practices in hospitals as well as other settings and determine the relationship between the two is better able to deliver evidence based practice in a politically astute atmosphere. This paper will discuss a recent article in Newsweek Magazine and how that article impacts nursing and the role of the Masters prepared nurse.
” The Hospital That Could Cure Health Care” in the December 2009 Newsweek talks about the Cleveland Clinic. This is a the hospital that President Obama visited in July to determine what efficient healthcare was like. The Cleveland Clinic has such things as a miniature robot that repairs a heart valve through an inch long incision, a computer system that allows doctors to read patients charts and write orders from anywhere in the world and interactive supply closets. When a nurse removes something from a supply shelf, the supply is registered and a self guided robot cart brings replacements from the warehouse. They are an upscale hospital who built their efficiency after the Toyota factory and the Japanese inspired lean thinking model (Adler & Interlandi, 2009)
The CEO here is unusual and forward thinking. He has already banned the hiring of smokers and does urine tests on employees for nicotine. He presently wants a policy to ban hiring people who are obese but the law will not yet allow him to do that. Things like potato chips have been banned from the hospital vending machines. However, Cleveland Clinic has produced the most cost efficient care in the United States in the last two years. They are nearly 50% below everyone else’s costs. Clinic physicians work on a fixed salary and yearly contracts.
On the other hand, their business is so good because their medicine is so good. 39, 309 patients from within the United States and 2, 380 patients from other countries were transferred to the hospital for cardiac care alone. They fly them all there on their own fleet of helicopters. They do not ask what insurance they have, everyone is treated the same. Their reputation alone, however, assures them a steady stream of well paying patients.
This hospital is a picture of what healthcare will have to become in order to fix healthcare. Nurses will have jobs that are not necessarily the same in any way. Everything needs to be streamlined and functioning more efficiently and nursing is no exception. To assure that nursing is ready to lead into the field with so many changes, they must be able to merge theory, practice, and research (McEwen & Wills, 2007). Nursing theory, nursing practice, and nursing science must work together and there must be leaders who can use all of the principles from the three to educate and train other nurses.
The Cleveland Clinic as described in the article is the future frontier of medicine. It will come sooner than is thought. Masters prepared nurses are the future frontier of nursing (Lukosius, Dicenso, Browne et. al., 2004) and professional development. It is the nurse who is prepared to ask questions about current practices and then develop new nursing knowledge, as well as organized and improve the delivery of that practice (Lukosius, et. al., 2004). Like the hospital talked about, that has extended its scope of care, so nursing must extend their scope of practice.
Leadership becomes extremely important in this type of atmosphere and the Masters level nurse is prepared with the understanding of transformational leadership, collaboration, and organizational development, all of which will be needed to make these changes. With these skills will also be the need for the skill of thinking and writing at the Masters level. Leadership will not be passed down, it will have to be pursued. The Masters level nurse is clear thinking, able to evaluate evidence, able to do comparative analysis, able to use clinical experience to validate literature, identifies gaps in the literature and is able to develop an argument. All of these skills will be necessary in the leadership needed in the new healthcare arena(Fowler, 2007)
In conclusion, there are many massive changes that have been occurring and continue to occur in healthcare. However, the Cleveland Clinic shows us that the changes coming will be greater and more rapid in the past. Quality, efficient healthcare does not just happen, it has to be planned, taught, and implemented. The Masters level nurse will be uniquely qualified to step forward and help drive the forces of change. This nurse will be prepared for the leadership and educational role of a challenging new future for healthcare.
Resources
Adler, J., & Interlandi, J. (2009). The hospital that could cure healthcare. Newsweek. Dec. 53-
56.
Fowler, J. (2007). Thinking and writing at Masters level: a reflective passage. British Journal of
Nursing. 15(14). 887-890.
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2007). Theoretical Basis for Nursing. 2nd ed. Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins: Philidelphia. 476-478.
Whyte, D., Lugton, J., Fawcett, T. (2000). Fit for purpose: the relevance of Masters preparation
for the professional practice of nursing. Journal of Advanced Practice Nursing. 31(5).
1072-1080.