Providing Support for Nurse Training: An Outline for the Industry
There are over 3.8 million Registered Nurses (RNs) in the United States, many of whom got where they are through online nursing programs. They make up the backbone of healthcare and are found everywhere from hospitals to even movie sets. Their skills are invaluable, and more and more nurses are needed every year.
Despite there being millions of RNs, however, there are only 267,000 Advanced Practice Registered Nurses APRNs in the United States. APRNs work to support and in some cases even replace physicians. Family Nurse Practitioners, for example, are the current solution to counteract the shortage of doctors in the primary care sector.
In just a decade it is expected that the US will experience a shortage of 100,000, on top of its nursing shortage. The population is aging, and already an estimated 63 million people in the United States don't have ready access to healthcare. Without this easy access to care, diagnoses are delayed, costs are higher, and the death rate is more pronounced.
Patients are confident in the care they receive from nurses, and APRNs, in particular, are perfectly positioned to improve the level of physician-level care across the country. They are well trusted, they cost less, and they can help give more citizens access to the primary care they need. Many APRNs also earn their higher qualification through online nursing programs, meaning that they don't even need to take time off from work to advance.
When APRNs are allowed to work with their full skill set, they can offset the shortage of physicians and work to engage more rural communities for a lower cost. They are the perfect option to expand health care coverage and quality, and more RNs need to be convinced, and supported, through their training.
To go from being an RN to an APRN one needs to earn, at minimum, a Master of Science in Nursing. In the past, this was incredibly difficult to achieve while working full-time, but thanks to many high-quality online nursing programs there are more options than ever. The industry as a whole, however, needs to work towards creating the right support structures.
Completing online nursing programs while working full-time as an RN is no easy task. By providing more support and structure at work, as well as creating student resources for support and guidance online, the government and private sector can help build the right environment for more RNs to work towards their higher qualifications.
Existing Support Structures for RNs Working Towards their MSN
Just because support needs to be improved to help encourage and enable RNs to work towards their higher qualifications does not mean that great work is not already being done.
Online Degrees Are Perfect for Working Professionals
One of the best and most instrumental of the support structures already in place is the expansion of online nursing programs. Online nursing programs that have been specifically designed to be completed online (except clinic hours) differ widely from ones that were originally on-campus and have been translated to allow for remote working students.
Online nursing programs designed for a digital format have no mandatory log-in times, have a minimum number of credit hours per week, and offer additional support features like a student success coach.
Simply translating a degree traditionally taught in-person cannot work with the online world. It requires its own framework so that students can benefit from online education the most. By taking advantage of the unique learning opportunities via digital tools, academic institutions can actually work to provide better training online.
With accreditation, it is also easy for RNs to choose the degree that will help them with their career the most. The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) are all great accrediting bodies in the nursing world.
Where support structures are lacking is not with the online nursing programs. Online nursing programs offer intuitive learning frameworks, student success coaches, career coaching, and so much more.
Rather it is workplaces and the industry as a whole that need to improve their support structures and incentives to encourage more RNs to work towards their higher qualifications.
Recommended Support Structures to Adopt
What currently exists to support working nurses as they pursue online nursing programs is great, but it isn't enough. We need more APRNs to offset the shortage of physicians, and for that to happen we need to implement these support structures and resources:
Financial Support
Dedicated loans for nurses specifically, sponsorships offered by employers, and even institutional access to medical journals that all employees can access will go a long way. There are so many different options for hospitals, research centers, and even the government itself to help RNs financially support themselves or even cover the tuition of their online nursing programs. Scholarships and other grants can even be offered in exchange for work contracts, so we can work to get more highly qualified nurses into the rural areas that are lacking in health care workers the most.
Learning Support
Learning support should be given by every employer. Even something as simple as having a guide for RNs to follow so that they know great note-taking apps can go a long way. By having an employer that acknowledges the effort and provides opportunities to make that effort easier you can help your nurses and improve your workplace culture.
One great option, for example, is to have a study zone. This should be just a quiet break room with a no-talking policy where students can read and learn on their breaks. For those who aren't studying it can be just where they can sit in silence for a moment and collect themselves. It's an easy thing to provide, but it will do wonders to help those RNs studying for their MSN or DNP.
Health Support
Offering healthy snacks and drinks throughout the day can help keep energy levels up for everyone. For those who are going to go home and continue studying, however, it can make a massive difference.
Other options and ways that employers can help is by organizing things like yoga mornings or offering gym membership or classes as a benefit.
For the industry as a whole, creating an online guide of suggestions on how to eat better and manage stress when working and studying can help students everywhere. It doesn't have to be designed for nurses, either. By getting universities together to create one simple, effective health guide for students to access and review for simple suggestions, we can encourage every student to live better.
Wellbeing Support
Nurses should have access to mental health services and, ideally, should go through an evaluation regularly. Emotional and mental fatigue is very common in nurses and first responders, though the issues are usually in areas with a lot of chaos or death. Emergency rooms typically cause this fatigue, while family clinics don't. Hospices are often worse than care homes, and so on.
By providing mental health support and resources to nurses we can help them share their stress with professionals. This is key for full-time workers, as well as those taking online nursing programs. Emotional fatigue can lead to burn out, break downs, stress, and mistakes. We need to care for and emotionally support our nurses so that they can continue to provide the best in care and still be able to achieve their goals.
Aside from having psychologists and psychiatrists available to nursing staff, creating a supportive environment at work is something every employer should strive for:
- Organize Support Group Meetings
Losing a patient can be hard. Work can be emotionally distressing. How a nurse feels is valid regardless of whether they can brush off what happens during the day or it slowly chips away at them. Employers should take the initiative and work to organize or at least sponsor support group meetings. Employers shouldn't take a hands-on approach, but by enabling people struggling in the area with the same issue (compassion fatigue) employers can provide a safe space to feel, assess, and understand.
- Encourage Out-of-Work Team Bonding
Support structures are imperative when it comes to professions that can result in compassion fatigue. Those same structures, however, also work wonders for those who are feeling the pressure of taking on a degree on top of their career.
That support structure can be found at home, but it should also be found at work. Organizing different opportunities for employees to bond and enjoy activities together outside of work can help build strong bonds that work to fend off stress, compassion fatigue, and more.
Organize a running group, day excursions, and more. These don't have to cost the employer anything more than the time it takes to put these ideas together and to get people to sign up.
- Connect Working Students
If more than one RN is working towards their higher qualification, put them in touch with each other at work. Online nursing programs offer a lot of great benefits, but social peer learning is still best conducted in-person. By putting working students together, you can give them at least the option to study together, create study notes, and more. Working together, employers can give their employees every opportunity to learn in a way they most prefer.
- Offer Training
If an RN is working towards their APRN license, ask what you can do to help them learn and absorb the information better. This may be by working in a different department that is more relevant to what they want to study. It may be by asking APRNs to be ambassadors, so if students need help or advice they have a few APRNs who are happy to answer.
There are so many ways you can emotionally and mentally support your staff so that they can work towards their online nursing programs and succeed. Their success means improved patient healthcare across the board, so providing RNs with the emotional support to get through the difficult task of working while completing a degree is one of the best ways to make a big impact.
Make Opportunities Known and Available
A lack of information and awareness can make even the best idea redundant. Employers everywhere need to advertise to RNs to become an APRN and to even offer talks, shadow opportunities, and more so that RNs can learn and understand more about what they want from their career.
There are four main types of nurses:
- Nurse Practitioner
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Nurse Midwife
- Nurse Anesthetist
Within each of these types of APRNs, there are many more individual specializations. It is not feasible to assume that an RN will know what specialization they want to work in without really delving into what the role will mean. By offering career learning opportunities you can get RNs into the field that they are most interested in and passionate about.
We need APRNs, but as with any career, a lack of understanding of what is available and what the job entails is putting a lot of people off from making that decision. An MSN degree is a big commitment. By offering nurses the ability to explore their future career options you can get them excited to pursue their MSN.
No one wants to waste their money or time, and making the wrong choice of MSN can do just that. By making it easy to explore their interests, employers can get APRNs in their best vocation.
This doesn't mean that we cannot advertise positions that are in the greatest need of nurses, either. Many are happy to do a wide variety of work, they just need to be encouraged. By encouraging RNs to take FNP degrees, for example, and providing the coaching necessary so that they know exactly what they can do with that degree, we can get more people into the fields that we need.
We need more health care workers. To facilitate that we need to inspire more people, but more importantly, make it more accessible for them to get the education that they need. APRNs, especially FNP nurses, are essential to offset the physician shortage, but APRNs are critical across the board and every single position needs new, dedicated specialists.
(Disclaimer: Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)
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