Patient Safety Outcomes, BSN and ADN
Over the years, there has been a marked increase of the Baccalaureate degree (BSN) and Advanced Diploma (ADN) nurses in the USA. For instance, in the USA, the BSN nurses account for 45% of the total number of nurses (Kutney-Lee, Sloane, & Aiken, 2013). Despite this rise in numbers, doubts of whether the BSNs and ADNs are the solutions to the current problems in nursing still linger in the minds of many people.
For instance, the question of whether there is a link of BSNs as well ADNs to patient safety outcomes remains unanswered for many people. In essence, this discussion seeks to establish a study that links patient safety outcomes to ADN and BSN nurses and give a personal stance of acceptance of the findings.
According to Aiken and colleagues, (2011) there is a link between patient safety and ADN as well BSN nurses. That is the case given that they established that low mortality rates were evident in hospitals with a high proportion of ADN and BSN nurses. More specifically, they noted that nurses with a baccalaureate degree reduced by 4% the patient deaths in adult care hospitals across four states in the USA. However, the study fails to explain the mechanism for this statistic, a common weakness among studies targeting this issue.
Lastly, concerning my personal stance about these findings of the research, I totally agree that there is a link between patient safety outcomes and nursing level of education (BSN and ADN). My decision is solely anchored on my past interaction with my colleagues in senior classes since I am yet to practice nursing. I have come to appreciate that hospitals with a high proportion of BSN and ADN nurses have quality standards, which demands of reporting events that curtail patient safety. The ramification of such a practice is a reduced mortality rate in such hospitals.
In closure, without a doubt, there is a link between patient safety outcomes and high nursing education level. However, going to the future, there is a need for more studies to investigate the mechanism for this association. With an understanding of the same, acceptability rates of nurses to advance their educational level to a minimum will increase.
References
Aiken, L. H., Cimiotti, J. P., Sloane, D. M., Smith, H. L., Flynn, L., & Neff, D. F. (2011). The effects of nurse staffing and nurse education on patient deaths in hospitals with different nurse work environments. Medical care, 49(12), 1047.
Kutney-Lee, A., Sloane, D. M., & Aiken, L. H. (2013). An increase in the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees is linked to lower rates of postsurgery mortality. Health Affairs, 32(3), 579-586.
