Nursing Gains Visibility

Nursing Gains Visibility

Ever since the introduction of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) refusal of payment for hospital-acquired poor outcomes, nursing has gained visibility because these outcomes are nurse sensitive. Locate an article or website that refers to these nurse-sensitive outcomes and describe its findings.

Here are some added critical thinking questions for you to consider.

1. Describe nurse-sensitive issues that impact your daily practice. What is your role in preventing them from occurring? What is your role in gathering data about outcomes?
2. Is technology the total answer? How do staffing mix and acuity impact nurse-sensitive outcomes?
3. Nursing diagnoses capture nurse-sensitive outcomes. Discuss how integration of standardized terminology will support the need for adequate nurse staffing.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

A discussion paper published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing on the image of nursing shows that the public is not always aware of the qualifications nurses need for their profession. As the result, their actual public image is diverse and incongruous, and tends to be influenced by nursing stereotypes. Ironically, this image may be partly self-created by nurses themselves due to their lack of public discourse and visibility.

A team of researchers from The Netherlands identified the image and identity of nurses by identifying 1216 relevant studies in the

period 1997—2010, with 18 studies meeting their inclusion criteria. They identified several aspects of the stereotypical images that not meet the professional image of nursing. Nurses generally prized for their virtues, not their knowledge. They seem to be viewed as feminine and caring, not as autonomous healthcare providers. Moreover, nursing is seen as a profession with limited career opportunities.

The study found that nurses derive their self-concept and professional identity from their public image, work environment, work values, education and traditional social and cultural values. To circumvent this unfavorable image, nurses should work harder to make themselves ‘visible’. They could profit from using social media to communicate both their professionalism and contribution to the public.

The study concluded that fairer image and stronger position can be realised by ongoing education and a challenging work environment that encourages nurses to stand up for themselves. Furthermore, nurses should make better use of strategic positions, such as case manager, nurse educator or clinical nurse specialist and use their professionalism to show the public what their work really entails.

We asked Cheryl Prescott, Nurse Educator at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane what her thoughts are. This is what she said:

The professional image of nursing has long been vulnerable to inaccuracies and negative stereotypes, and the role that mass media plays in reinforcing negative nurse stereotypes cannot be overstated.

Nurse educator Cheryl Prescott
Inaccurate portrayals in the media that minimise the invaluable contribution of nursing to the intersdisciplinary team have far reaching effects, negatively affecting nurses’ professional self-concept and undermining the fight to ensure nursing is resourced to meet the needs of clinical practice, and promote quality nurse education and research (Bickhoff, 2015). Further, it has been shown that this negativity has a tangible effect on recruitment into the nursing profession. As long ago as 2008, a study conducted at Dundee University found that public images of nurses as low-status and lacking credibility – even as “brainless sex-mad bimbos” – were discouraging academically advanced primary school students from considering the nursing profession (Neilson and Lauder, 2008, p. 684).

It is important that nurses advocate strongly for their profession, presenting the reality of nursing, and helping everyone to understand what nurses really do for patients and the wider community. As nurses increasingly take on more and more roles, we must take every opportunity to own the care nurses deliver, celebrate the positive therapeutic connections we make every day, and positively profile our great profession (Prescott, 2015). Only an understanding of the true value of a strong, highly-skilled nursing profession will ensure that professional, competent and caring nurses are there when and where they are needed.