A newly licensed nurse compares the challenges facing nursing today with those faced by nurses when her mentor graduated in 1990

Question

The mentor states, "Prevention was the focus of nursing when I graduated. We stressed preventive health measures such as smoking cessation education to reduce preventable diseases and prevention to reduce the spread of infectious disease such as AIDS." The mentor asks, "What do you think the challenges will be for nurses graduating now? The correct response would be: (Select all that apply.)
a. coordinating care for a more diverse aging population who have complex health values.
b. managing care provided by nurses who are technologically advanced and skilled at interprofessional collaboration.
c. providing care to well-informed consumers who are younger with narrow health values.
d. redesigning nursing care delivery models to streamline care based on fewer generational differences.
e. focusing on care from a systems perspective.

Answer 1

ANS: A, B, E
Correct:
a. Our society, thus our patients/consumers, is aging and better informed about health care options, with health values as diverse as the various populations of patients served.
b. Nurses educated in the twenty-first century are introduced to advanced technologies throughout the curriculum, but a gap still exists between the potential benefits of technology and the use made of it to reduce errors and improve patient care; interprofessional collaboration is a challenge with incivility and workplace violence increasing.
e. Today's nurses must view health care from a systems perspective rather than a nursing unit perspective to decrease errors/costs that arise from system errors.
Incorrect:
c. Today's consumers are much better informed about their care; however, they are aging rather than younger and have more diverse/complex health values.
d. Because nurses and patients are more culturally and generationally diverse, care models need to be designed that are patient focused and account for generational and cultural differences between patients and providers.