Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/519657
6 4 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 5 BSNs by 2020. Initially, people responded by trying to justify the staffing status quo with statements such as: "I know plenty of extremely capable ADNs." But there have been changes in the nursing field, as in health care as a whole, and most people who can detach emotionally from the question can ask themselves, "Does professional development, like increasing education levels for nurses, offer a good return on investment?" • Above and beyond. Diploma nurses and ADNs can do a wide range of cases. You might ask, "If they can already scrub and circulate a wide variety of cases, what else can we gain from their getting a BSN?" The answer is, greater leadership, problem-solving and communication abilities, a set of non-cognitive attitudes and behaviors — or "soft skills" — that they will acquire during BSN education. Can you parlay those qualities into something that helps your facility? Many facilities, if they're supportive of continuing professional development, find that they can. • Other BSN benefits. The nursing education debate has been going on for decades. What's different now is that there are a number of studies showing that the greater the proportion of BSNs on your staff, the better your outcomes and the fewer your complications. We've seen this on a high level, at a hospital or a sys- tem of hospitals. One big question remains: Does it make a difference in the par- ticular environment of the OR? That's what we want to find out. • Dollars and sense. There could be an economic payoff from investing in the pro- fessional development of your nurses as well. There's a very basic concept at work here. If you could increase the percentage of your nurses with BSNs, could you lower your SSI rates? Since CMS is not going to reimburse you for the care and treatment of healthcare associated infections, this could have real dol- lars-and-cents consequences. That's a persuasive argument to take to the C- suite.