HJAR Mar/Apr 2020

16 MAR / APR 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   NURSING ROUNDTABLE Organization (WHO) has declared 2020 as the Year of the Nurse, as well as a celebra- tion for Florence Nightingale’s 200th birth anniversary. Green Nursing and the healthcare environ- ment is continually changing, not only in our region, but across the country. One of the changes I’ve seen in response to the grow- ing demand for healthcare is an increased number of new nurses hired directly into specialty care areas. To aid in this, residen- cy programs have been developed to assist new graduate nurses in making the transi- tion from advanced beginners to competent professionals. At Washington Regional, our nurse residency program has been shown to reduce stress levels in nurses, while improv- ing their competency, confidence, leadership skills, and ability to prioritize care. Residency programs make new graduate nurses feel empowered and knowledgeable, while prop- erly preparing them with the needed skills and expertise for delivering care in specialty units. As we all know, healthcare continues to grow and change to better meet the needs and demands of the community, and I am excited for our future, and to see where all nursing is going. Hickman I graduated from my nursing pro- gram in 1980, and have continued to achieve higher degrees since then. I think nursing has changed over the many years that I have been a nurse fromone of more task oriented/ functional service to one of a collaborative and professional role. I think nursing has also embraced enhanced communication methods as technology has improved over the years. Apositive aspect of this is that there is a wealth of information available to nurses in caring for patients that is quickly acces- sible, compared to having to find old paper records, calling other care providers for his- tory, etc., and the efficiency of accessing lab results on multiple visits at a single time is certainly more efficient. sick and vulnerable. I was also lucky to have a family member who was a nurse, and she encouraged me to pursue nursing, while also modeling the positive benefits of nursing as a healing and helping profession. An added, unexpected benefit was learning that I could enter the workforce, begin my professional career, and gain independence in a relatively short timeline. As my career evolved and I moved out of direct patient care and intomore administra- tive roles, I thought I might miss the oppor- tunity to directly serve and care for others. These roles gave me a different perspective on patient care, and prepared me for my new role as chief nursing officer. I am once again enjoying the opportunity to serve in a caring capacity—this time for the 3,000+ nurses and other professions in the nursing and patient care services division at UAMS. Williams I completed a logical analysis of the jobmarket, and chose the profession of nurs- ing. However, early inmy nursing career, God ignited a fire inme for creating optimum care environments for nurses, physicians, and pa- tients. That fire continues to burn brighter and brighter every day. How has nursing changed in healthcare, and do you think it is moving in the right direction? Diedrich I have been a registered nurse for 30 years, and I have seen so many changes in our profession. Overall, I would say we are moving in the right direction. Some of these changes include the acuity of the patients we care for across the continuum of care. As a profession, we strive to ensure that we hear the voice of the nurses who are providing direct care to our patients, and implement evidence-based practices. I am proud to say that, according to the most recent Gal- lup survey, nurses ranked the highest as the most trusted profession for the last 18 years. I think this reflects the important role nurses have in ensuring that patients receive the saf- est and best care possible. TheWorld Health Ray More than ever, nurses are claiming the profession as their own. While expand- ing far beyond the traditional role to bring nursing insight to areas such as IT, teaching, telehealth, informatics, employee health, and consulting, nursing remains at the heart of health care. Nurses now have many great opportunities to work in patient care or to find the right fit, change paths, or even cre- ate entirely new roles. It is a great time to be a nurse. We are absolutely headed in the right direction. Williams Technology has changed, but the compassion of the nurses in healthcare is the same. Nurses have always been the ones helping others navigate through some of the darkest moments of their lives, and that con- tinues to be the case. I am amazed every day by the compassion of the nurses I have the honor and privilege of working with. What would you like to see more of in nursing education? Brackeen I have been encouraged that schools of nursing are incorporating better candidate admission screening processes than in times past. In the past, there seemed to be undue pressure for these schools to fo- cus on increasing enrollment and graduation rates due to the shortage of nurses. Today, some schools are using psychometric testing procedures to better understand a potential nursing school candidate’s critical reasoning capabilities. These improved screening prac- tices result in nurses better suited to practice in today’s increasingly complex healthcare system. Diedrich There are a lot of options in the nursing area for progression of education. You can practice with an associate’s degree through a doctorate, andArkansas offers ev- ery degree level right here in our state. One area of focus for nursing education is transi- tion to practice—from student to registered nurse in charge of a group of patients. As you can imagine, it is a challenge. Those in the