buy custom Means of Empowering Nurses essay

buy custom Means of Empowering Nurses essay Certification is one of the ways of empowering nurses since it validates their competency and increases their chances of experiencing professional growth. However, certification comes at a cost and one has to spend time pursuing the certification process. Certified nurses are often regarded as specialty leaders in their practice. For a nurse to get certification, many hours have to be spent in a program that facilitates the certification process. Therefore, the initials that are found in names of some nurses indicate more than professional excellence; they also indicate the efforts that the nurse made in pursuing a program that would facilitate the recognition of her individual nursing excellence in a particular specialty. While certification plays a very important role in the nursing profession, it also has a share of problems. The implication created by certification by specialty is that nurses practice as autonomous groups. These groups are established in the process through which different nurses are required to meet different qualifications in order to be certified. Practice, education and experience requirements differ from one specialty to another. Specialty organizations have in the past been trying to propose the creation of a nursing specialty board at the national level whereby certification criteria and standards would be established uniformly. The presupposition of this proposal was that this would increase the value of credentials in a scenario where there is wide variation in nursing certification programs, thereby improving professionalism in nursing. Certification is a means of empowering nurses. Specialty certification benefits the individual nurse, the area of specialty where the nurse practices, (and generally, the nursing profession), the institution and the entire community. Gibson (1989), (cited in Tenney, Demoucell Wias, 1992) revealed in a research study on nurses perceptions of specialty certification that nurses anticipated an automatic validation of professional achievement as well as an improvement in their self-image upon becoming certified. The study also revealed that 84% of all the 493 respondents who were surveyed said that certification would enable them make improvements in patient care skills. Nurses with specialty certification tend to get respect and great admiration from their peers because of their expertise and advanced knowledge. Certification stimulates many nurses to stay up-to-date with knowledge and practice since they are often exposed to continuing education. Additionally, certification makes it easy for nurses to find opportunities for private practice, where they can take up career roles as expert witnesses or consultants (Tenney, Demoucell Wians, 1992) This research explores the perceptions that influence nurses into seeking specialty certification. The research delves into benefits of getting nursing certification with a view to find different perceived benefits and inherent, self-evident benefits. The main aim of this research, therefore, is to clarify the validity of different benefits of getting certified. Tenney, Demoucell and Wians (1992) lists five main different areas where benefits are achieved through specialty nursing certification: (a) to the individual nurse, (b) areas of specialty practice, (c) the nursing profession, (d) the nursing institution, and (e) the community. This research will explain the benefits of nursing in all these different areas, although the main emphasis will be on the benefits that accrue to the individual nurse, the main aim being to try and disentangle inherent benefits from mere perceptions. To the specialty practice, certification makes it easy for different levels of competence in the practice to be clearly drawn out and defiined. Through certification, the legitimacy a certain specialization is guaranteed. To the nursing profession, certification is a form of self-regulation. A nurse is recognized through the validity of his proficiency. A nurse who is certified in a certain areas is considered to have mastered a certain body of highly specialized knowledge, has adhered to certain established standards and has become competent in terms of practice and experience. The nursing institution, too, derives many benefits through certification, one of them being creation of a basis for hiring, promotions, wage increases, and provision of practice privileges. Certification is a good basis for third-party payment (Edari and Staff, 1979 cited in Tenney, Demoucell Wians, 1992). The community benefits through certification through improvement in quality in the care given to patients. For a nurse to become certified, he has to commit some time, money and energy into the certification process. There are exams to be taken, and this means drawing up study plans for several months that precede the exam. Demauro (2008) says that today, certifications are available for almost every nursing specialty such as the American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC) or Board of Certification for American Nurses). The ANCC certifies nurses in more than 20 different specialties. Certification, adds Demauro, is a good basis of getting a pay increase, whereby certified nurses according to national salary statistics, earn more compared to their uncertified colleagues with the same level of academic qualifications. According to Demauro (2008) many nurses are motivated to seek certification since it carries the same connotation regardless of where one works in the military, NGOs, private practice and so on. National salary surveys indicate that it becomes easy for certified nurses to get better-paying jobs that fall squarely along their chosen career paths. Buy custom Means of Empowering Nurses essay

Calculators on the SAT Tips from Experts

Calculators on the SAT Tips from Experts SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Calculators are allowed on the SAT, and not using them correctly can put you far behind. SAT experts Fred Zhang and Allen Cheng discuss which tips and strategies worked for them in getting perfect scores. Intro to Calculators on the SAT Allen: So just how important are calculators to the SAT? Fred: I would say they're of medium importance on the SATMath section. You absolutely need to have the right calculator strategy. On the one hand, most of the work on the math section (even the calculator section!) is interpreting the problem - a calculator can't do that for you. On the other hand, not using a calculator or using the wrong calculator strategy can really mess you up. Allen: I agree. Calculators can't make your day, but can definitely break your day.You need to avoid mistakes to get a good score on SAT Math, which you need to do if, for example, you are aiming for a top engineering school. Here are our top tips. Tip 1: Bring a Calculator The College Board Official Calculator Policy says that you don't need a calculator for the SAT. They say that because the College Board needs to make the SAT seem accessible to people of all income levels. The reality is that a calculator,and the right calculator at that, is an absolute must. We've taken the ACT, SAT, GRE, MCAT, and a whole slew of standardized tests as well as class tests. Whenever calculators were allowed, 9 out of 10 times they were of substantial help. When you need to multiply 2392 x 323, it's faster and more accurate to do so on a calculator. Bring your calculator! Tip 2: Always Double-Check the Entry Line What's an entry line? It's a lineat the top of the calculator that shows you what you've typed: Many Scientific Calculators, like the Casio fx-300MS (Fred's personal favorite for the SAT), have an entry line, as do the Ti-83, Ti-84 and Ti-89. Fred: Always, always glance at this to double-check before you hit enter. Glancing takes less than a second, and so many times I caught myself typing (425+25) instead of (424+25) or reversing a decimal. A few mistakes like that on the math section can cost you up to 50-100 points! By double-checking, I have managed almost never to make a computation mistake. Allen: Absolutely. My favorite SAT calculator is the Ti-89, and I check the entry line all the time. If you're a high scorer, it is crucial for preventing careless mistakes. If you're not a high scorer, it lets you double check the order of operations, and lets you match the equation on the paper. Fred: Oh, and implicit in all of this is that you should stay away from calculators that don't have an entry line.That 4-function (only does add, subtract, multiply, divide) calculator in the closet? No way. Some scientific calculators don't have an entry line - using one would put you at a big disadvantage. Tip 3: Be Familiar With Your Calculator Allen: What would you say your worst calculator experiences were? Fred: Oh, by far, in school when I had to use one I wasn't used to. I'd be hunting around for the "sine" symbol. I'd find it, but then realize I have to hit another button at the same time to activate it. And to add to that, halfway through the quiz, I realized the calculator angle unit was set in radians instead of degrees, so my answers would be all wrong. As an aside, do you know how to swim or ride a bike? If so, then you know how important being familiar with an activity is. Calculator familiarity is no different. If you’re hoping to get the most out of your calculator, you must, must, must use one that you are used to. One that you've used for 20 hours or more, ideally. You have a vague muscle memory of where the keys are, what settings there are, and so forth. Remember this: the worst calculator is an unfamiliar calculator. A familiar scientific calculator is far better than an unfamiliar Ti-89. How do you gain familiarity with a calculator? Pick one you like, and then use it for tests, homework, and anything else. To the extent possible, when doing classwork, don't borrow other people's, don't use the class calculator. Gain familiarity with one calculator model. Tip 4: Know When to Put the Calculator Down Allen: Is there such thing as believing in the calculator too much? Putting too much faith in it? Fred: Oh, absolutely. Throughout my career, I've seen so many students who think that the right calculator will magically solve all their math problems.These students go through the trouble of firing up their Ti-84, navigating a slew of menus to find a high-powered cubic equation solver, slowly enter in the equation carefully, hit enter, and get a rounded answer like .588 that they have to convert back to 10/17. Allen: I've seen those in my day, and the kicker is that the math problem would take 2 minutes to do on the calculator, while if you just thought creatively about the problem, you'd get it in 15 seconds. Fred: For sure, calculator over-users suffer from typos on the calculator, and the conversion of rounded numbers to fractions. Beware of Using a Calculator When: You feel like you have to use a super-complicated program to solve it. You know the answer is a fraction like 5/13, but the calculator only outputs decimal equivalents. When you have to use a large number of key-presses or menu navigations to get to your answer. More key presses means more chances for mistakes. Our golden rule: If what you're trying to do with your graphing calculator is NOT doable on a scientific calculator, you are likely overusing your calculator. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you should really only be using the calculator to do combinations of the four basic functions,like (425+25)/3 - (42*4)/3. You Should Use Calculators: To improve the accuracy of 4-function calculations (but be careful what you type!). To speed up complex 4-function calculations (typing 3823 * 84 is much faster than doing it by hand). For minimal other uses. Bonus QA: What's Your Favorite Calculator for the SAT and Why? Fred: For sure, the Casio fx-300MS. I have so many reasons for loving this calculator (and they're not paying me to say this): It has an entry line, and we talked about how important this is. It's a relatively simple calculator, meaning all teachers will let you use it for exams that allow calculators, so you can get a lot of practice using this calculator. Since it's a simple calculator, you'll also never be tempted to boot up the cubic equation solver, which we discussed before is often less than optimal. The only drawback is that, if you find that there is some graphing calculator function you must use, and you've found it to be helpful, it won't be on this one. But I've personally never found such a "mandatory" graphing calculator function, at least not for the SAT. Allen: I like the Ti-89 the most. It's one of the most powerful calculators acceptable on the SAT. Why do I love it? It has much more functionality that most other calculators (and is more expensive as well). It gives you answers back in fraction and "rationalized" format: so if the answer is 10/17, it will give you that, instead of a decimal jumble like0.5882352 (which leaves you to match it up). I find the equation solver to be pretty helpful. Solving 3x+4y=6, 9x+2y=-10 is kind of a pain manually, and you can just type this in on the Ti-89. But typing it in correctly takes not much less effort that solving on paper, so I can go either way on this. It's definitely not a "mandatory feature." Key CalculatorActionables The most important lesson for calculator use, again, is to have a calculator at all. Secondly, it's key double-check all entries. Thirdly, you have to develop familiarity with the calculator. And finally, use it mainly for four functions, plus just a bit more. What does this mean you should do? Master one calculator. Bring a backup to the test, or at least backup batteries. What do we not recommend? Spending hours loading complicated programs into that Ti-84. Relying on using the advanced functions of each calculator. Obsessing over the calculator as the golden ticket to your 800. Now that you know these tips, go out and conquer the SAT Math section! What's Next? Not sure what score to aim for on the SAT? Read our guide to learnhow to figure out your target SAT score! Need more helpprepping for the SAT Math section?We're here to help! Check out our ultimate SAT Math guide for everything you need to know to ace this section of the SAT. 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