Professional Nursing Practice In Clinical Education

Clinical Education In Professional Nursing Practice

 Concepts for Nursing Professional Practice,Clinical Judgment as Professional Attribute,Communication In Professional Nursing Practices,Compassionate Care Professional Practices,Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion In Professional Practices,Ethics In Professional Practices.

Concepts for Nursing Professional Practice

In     Addition to domains, there are featured concepts associated with professional nursing practice that are integrated within the essentials. A concept is an organizing idea or a mental abstraction that represents important areas of knowledge. A common understanding of each concept is achieved through characteristics and attributes. Many disciplines, like nursing, have numerous concepts. 

        The featured concepts are well represented in the nursing literature and thus are also found throughout the Essentials and verified through a crosswalk analysis. Specifically, the featured concepts are found in the introduction, across the domains (within domain descriptors and contextual statements), and within the competencies and sub competencies. 

        Although not every concept is found within every domain, each concept is represented in most domains and all domains have multiple concepts represented. The featured concepts found within the Essentials are not of 'lesser importance' than a domain. Each of these concepts serves as a core component of knowledge, facts, and skills across multiple situations and contexts within nursing practice. 

       Each concept functions as a hub for transferable knowledge, thus enhancing learning when learners make cognitive links to other information through mental constructs. The integration of concepts within the competencies and sub-competencies is essential for the application throughout the educational experience. 

     As an example, can you imagine delivering person centered care without also considering diversity, equity, and inclusion? Can you imagine having a conversation about population health without considering ethics and health policy? These concepts truly are interrelated and interwoven within the domains and competencies, serving as a foundation for students' learning. The featured concepts are:

Clinical Judgment as Professional Attribute

    As one of the key attributes of professional nursing, clinical judgment refers to the process by which nurses make decisions based on nursing knowledge (evidence, theories, ways/patterns of knowing), other disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning (Manetti, 2019). 

    This process is used to understand and interpret information in the delivery of care. Clinical decision making based on clinical judgment is directly related to care outcomes.

Communication In Professional Nursing Practices

    Communication, informed by nursing and other theories, is a central component in all areas of nursing practice. Communication is defined as an exchange of information, thoughts, and feelings through a variety of mechanisms. The definition encompasses the various ways people interact with each other, including verbal, written, behavioral, body language, touch, and emotion. 

    Communication also includes intentionality, mutuality, partnerships, trust, and presence. Effective communication between nurses and individuals and between nurses and other health professionals is necessary for the delivery of high quality, individualized nursing care. With increasing frequency, communication is delivered through technological modalities. 

    Communication also is a core component of team-based, inter-professional care and closely interrelated with the concept Social Determinants of Health (described below).

Compassionate Care Professional Practices

    As an essential principle of person-centered care, compassionate care refers to the way nurses relate to others as human beings and involves “noticing another person's vulnerability, experiencing an emotional reaction to this, and acting in some way with them in a way that is meaningful for people” (Murray & Tuqiri, 2020). Compassionate care is interrelated with other concepts such as caring, empathy, and respect and is also closely associated with patient satisfaction.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion In Professional Practices

    Collectively, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) refers to a broad range of individual, population, and social constructs and is adapted in the Essentials as one of the most visible concepts. Although these are collectively considered a concept, differentiation of each conceptual element leads to enhanced understanding. 

    Diversity references a broad range of individual, population, and social characteristics, including but not limited to age; sex; race; ethnicity; sexual orientation; gender identity; family structures; geographic locations; national origin; immigrants and refugees; language; any impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; religious beliefs; and socioeconomic status. 

    Inclusion represents environmental and organizational cultures in which faculty, students, staff, and administrators with diverse characteristics thrive. Inclusive environments require intentionality and embrace differences, not merely tolerate them (AACN, 2017; Bloomberg, 2019), Everyone works to ensure the perspectives and experiences of others are invited, welcomed, acknowledged, and respected in inclusive environments. 

    Equity is the ability to recognize the differences in the resources or knowledge needed to allow individuals to fully participate in society, including access to higher education, with the goal of overcoming obstacles to ensure fairness (Kranich, 2001). 

    To have equitable systems, all people should be treated fairly, unhampered by artificial barriers, stereotypes, or prejudices (Cooper, 2016). Two related concepts that fit within DEI include structural racism and social justice. (See the glossary for definitions of structural racism and social justice.)

Ethics In Professional Practices

    Core to professional nursing practice, ethics refers to principles that guide a person's behavior. Ethics is closely tied to moral philosophy involving the study of or examination of morality through a variety of different approaches (Tubbs, 2009).     

  There are commonly accepted principles in bioethics that include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice (ANA 2015; ACNM, 2015; AANA, 2018; ICN, 2012). The study of ethics as it relates to nursing practice has led to the exploration of other relevant concepts, including moral distress, moral hazard, moral community, and moral or critical resilience.