Contributions of Master's Prepared Nurses

PG2018 · Nov 13, 2015

I contribute via revenue production.

sauce · Nov 13, 2015

Thats a tough one. Mostly because nurses dont contribute much to medical knowledge besides nursing theory. And nursing theory is pretty much a copy of psychological theory with the word nurse and/or bedside thrown into the mix.

I've read quite a few psychology books and to be honest have yet to find anything that is really "new" in nursing theory articles. Not that I read nursing theory articles since school, but I have been researching new forms of capital punishment and it seems forcing somebody to read nursing theory is considered more inhuman than the electric chair.

guest538567 · Nov 14, 2015

Try looking at DNP projects. Many are clinically focused on project development and outcomes based research. Perhaps your school compiles these and will allow you to review.

PG2018 · Nov 14, 2015

Thats a tough one. Mostly because nurses dont contribute much to medical knowledge besides nursing theory. And nursing theory is pretty much a copy of psychological theory with the word nurse and/or bedside thrown into the mix.
I've read quite a few psychology books and to be honest have yet to find anything that is really "new" in nursing theory articles. Not that I read nursing theory articles since school, but I have been researching new forms of capital punishment and it seems forcing somebody to read nursing theory is considered more inhuman than the electric chair.

I had the pleasure of attending a conference recently at which all of the presenters were board certified psychiatrists. The keynote speaker, however, went on and on about some nurse theorist and her nurse theory. She presented a graphic -I suppose in effort to tout the worthiness of the theory - comparing their theory to Maslow's hierarchy and she had the audacity to say "as you can see it's almost the same thing" to which some nurses were nodding their heads about. I was like, #$%&, you're reinventing the wheel just to give your spectrum personality some sense of accomplishment and think you're fulfilling some nursing prophecy."

My overall and total view of nursing is that it exists to provide the treatments and environment ultimately ordered by licensed physicians or in some cases denists or podiatrists. What's a nursing intervention? "Therapeutic touch," a back rub, rolling someone over in bed, presence???? Anybody off the street can walk into the room and do all of those things. I think it's all a heaping load of excrement. If nursing wants to make itself a psychosocial discipline then forget learning anything about biology, medicine, or the provision of healthcare and become some pseudo psychology-sociology hybrid and stamp your feet over reimbursent, i.e. let me enter the room and provide billable "presence." I think it's totally off putting. They may as well be chanting with feathers and healing crystals and giving out herbal supplements but wait that would require a physician order.

On another note, I took a few sociology courses, at least a half dozen psychology courses, and and a couple of philosophy courses and in none of them did words like "construct" and "paradigm" show up like they do in explanations of nursing theory.

Jules A, MSN · Nov 14, 2015

I recently had a FNP tell me "the reason NPs are better than doctors is that we are willing to take the time to sort through the fine details". I attempted to keep a straight face but would guess there was a horrified stink eye involved, lol. It is as if we divert the focus from a lack of billable skills with hugs and flowers. Why can't we focus on our clinical abilities and have the bleeding heart stuff be a subtle bonus not our only attribute worth grandstanding over?

Worth noting they had just said they only see 7-10 patients a day in their clinic. Not exactly bridging the provider gap with those lack luster numbers. No way would my employer pay me what I make to only see 7-10 primary care patients. It has gotten to the point where I am very negative about so much of the BS that seems to be nursing now. It makes me sad because I do believe nursing is the backbone of health care but this whole "thou doth protest too much" makes me weary and embarrassed for our profession. I enjoyed being a floor nurse in psych and love being a NP but cringe when exposed to the insignificant rhetoric my peers tout with such righteous indignation.

sauce · Nov 14, 2015

nurses as a whole think way too highly of themselves. I mean what exactly to nurses do that takes a large sum of intelligence? We don't program, building things, do complex math, learn complex science. No, we make up theory so we sound more important than what we are.

It disgusts me what I have to hear nursing instructors tell their students when they do clinical where I work. I almost want to tell them to sit down and do the job nursing is meant to do and stop with all the big headed bs and teach students to do what they need to do. Nursing diagnoses? yeah right, stop trying to be doctors.

It is also disgusting how nurses think they have a monopoly and holistic care. Give me a break. Stop trying to be special and go get me my pain pill, coffee, and soda... oh and wipe this turd i just squirted out on the wall too, doesn't bode well with the ambience.

To all you hardworking nurses who do what we are meant to do, hats off for doing a great job. To all you disgusting filth who overcomplicate the system and try to self inflate you head with your crap, please, jump off of a cliff, because when you come to my er afterward your getting one shot of toradol and getting sent back out the door.

elkpark · Nov 14, 2015

OP, apart from the bitterness and negativity expressed above, there are actually lots of advanced practice nurses making significant contributions to clinical practice and quality of care in a wide variety of specialty areas. I am in psych and can't speak to the specialty areas you specified, but I know that, in psych, many advanced practice nurses have developed and demonstrated the efficacy of various new psychotherapeutic interventions with kids and adults. Faculty at my alma mater do a lot of research on psychiatric meds and different therapy modalities with children with various kinds of psychiatric disorders. I hope that some other posters may come along and offer some specific ideas to you in the specialty areas you're looking for. Good luck with your project!

dudette10, MSN, RN · Nov 15, 2015

It is also disgusting how nurses think they have a monopoly and holistic care. Give me a break. Stop trying to be special and go get me my pain pill, coffee, and soda... oh and wipe this turd i just squirted out on the wall too, doesn't bode well with the ambience.
To all you hardworking nurses who do what we are meant to do, hats off for doing a great job.

Sauce, you're pretty offensive. I swear that I've had patients with the same attitude toward me and all nurses. Do the nurses that work with you know that you just see us as pill pushers, waitresses, and butt wipers?

I know you will come back, screaming CONTEXT and READING COMPREHENSION, but your overall attitude in multiple posts is rather clear. I'm not asking you to believe differently about a nurse's scope of practice; I am asking you to at least have some respect for our role and stop speaking so derisively about it.

Psychcns · Nov 15, 2015

Agree with dudette. I don't understand the negativity and the need to trash the nursing profession.

Barnstormin' PMHNP · Nov 15, 2015

I agree with the above posters as well. It's tiresome and juvenile.

OP, I'm not sure if you have done this already, but if you use EBSCO host, you can do an advanced search in which you can refine your parameters. Depending on if you use CINAHL or Medline or others, you can get it pretty well targeted to what you are looking for.

Our Clinical nurse specialist implemented a program in the ICU that tracked infections comparing care as usual (bed baths) vs chlorhexadine wipes over the course of 6 months. The chlorhexadine wipes decreased HAI's quite significantly, but that was not an original research project per se.

BeachsideRN, ASN · Nov 15, 2015

Wow. Based on PPs .... Maybe I'm naive, optimistic or a little of both. ... But I actually got into nursing to effect change. I have a detailed background in research and I anticipate using those skills in nursing and doing research that does, in fact, improve survival and quality of life.