Nursing Education and Productivity

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the field of nursing and how nursing productivity is affected by continuing education for nurses. The paper first presents a definition of the term productivity and then looks at the three stakeholders involved; nurses, management and the government. The paper explains that while these three entities may not agree on a single definition of productivity, they do tend to acknowledge that professional development can lead to an increase in productivity. The paper outlines the history of continuing education for nurses in contrast to today's continuing education. The paper describes the stress in the modern nursing environment and goes on to discuss how professional development is geared at reducing the impact of these stressors so that nurses can perform tasks more quickly and efficiently, without sacrificing patient care. The paper further explains that continuing training ensures that nurses are complying with state regulations, reducing the likelihood of malpractice suits based on nurse conduct. Therefore, the paper concludes that continued education for nurses is something that all stakeholders in the health care community should support.

Outline:
Introduction
Defining Productivity
History of Continuing Education for Nurses
Modern Continuing Education
Modern Nursing Profession
Professional Development as Part of a Healthy Work Environment
Human Resources
Stakeholders
Nursing View of Productivity
Management View of Productivity
Government View of Productivity
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The nursing community stalwartly emphasizes the importance of continuing education and suggests that it should be an important part of the nursing profession, whether legally required or voluntary. This emphasis is shared by the majority of the medical community. One of the primary reasons that nurses, nurse managers, and nurse educators believe that continuing education is important is because they link continued education to an increase in productivity. However, the study of productivity is very difficult, with one of the main problems being that managers and nurses tend to measure productivity in very different ways. However, they do seem to agree that an increase in productivity means being able to increase the same tasks in less time, without also increasing mistakes or stress. Therefore, while defining productivity is important when seeking to determine whether or not continued education does result in increased productivity, increased productivity is clearly meaningless unless it is a sustainable increase."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Allen, M., Allison, M., and Stevens, S. (2006, April). Mapping the literature of nursing education. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 94(2 Suppl), E122-E127. Retrieved September 3, 2008, from Pub Med Central database.
• Bowman, M. (1986). Nursing management and education. Dover: Croom Helm.
• Ellis, J.R., and Hartley, C.L. (2004). Nursing in today's world: trends, issues, and management, 8ed. Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Fabre, J. (2005). Smart Nursing. New York: Sheridan Press.
• Florida Center for Nursing. (2006). The value of a healthy work environment. RetrievedSeptember 3, 2008, from Florida Center for Nursing. Web site: http://www.flcenterfornursing.org/files/HealthyWorkEnv.pdf

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