NURSING

Contemporary Issues in Nursing



Contemporary Issues in Nursing

Introduction

Nursing as a profession has been built up over the centuries and more rapidly in recent decades as medicine, these developments demand a quality education with human, scientific, technical and ethical, to meet all human responses of patient family and community. The nursing profession globally have been modified by biotechnology developments, new lifestyles, socio-economic changes and the new family structures due to migration.

This reality demands training and improved health practices with knowledge of the biological and social sciences such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, ethics, bioethics, behaviour and theology itself, to guide the international teamwork, and multidisciplinary trans professional people and we do not health professionals (Leary 2008, pp.15).

Globally the lack of funding for nursing research is an important issue for all researchers. Particularly internationally the nurses do not have a significant history of success in funding research projects and as a result there is little valid scientific evidence on the research training.

Nursing is said to be the profession of responsibility and autonomy. Nursing is a profession with much greater responsibility than patient's care and comfort. People just consider the profession as doctor's assistant. Though, nursing is much more than this. It encompasses all the duties and responsibilities related to patient's care and comfort till the patient gets well (Lee 2010, pp. 2).

Discussion

The Dawn of the 21st Century

During the last half of the 20th century, globally there were cyclical nursing shortages that were generally resolved by the efforts of nurse educators and nurse administrators to recruit more students into programs. The shortage of nursing faculty has been identified as a major reason for turning away qualified applicants, despite a growing nursing shortage. The salary differential between clinical and faculty positions is a major factor related to the inability of many schools to recruit faculty. For example, the AACN (2008c) noted a 2007 survey that demonstrated that a nurse practitioner with a master's degree in nursing (M.S.N.) earned an average of $81,517 in clinical practice; a faculty member holding the M.S.N. earned an average of $66,588, controlling for 12-month employment as opposed to a 9-month academic appointment. Although deans and directors of nursing education programs argue for salary equity in comparison with health care organizations, most colleges and universities benchmark faculty salaries in comparison with other educational institutions, continuing the cycle of underpayment of nursing faculty compared with their clinical colleagues (Ellis 2004, pp. 3).

The Impact of Globalization on Nursing Discipline

The twentieth century has brought great changes, characterized by obtaining greater civil liberty, social justice and conscience and important discoveries in different fields such as space, nuclear energy, healthcare etc. The First and Second World War brought many changes in training and activities of nurses. Nursing care made a difference in the recovery of sick and wounded soldiers. In the first 50 years of this century, the priority was to eradicate communicable diseases and infection control from the use of aseptic and antiseptic ...