- Email: [email protected]
Towards 2000
CONFEDERAllON OF AUSTRAUAN CRITICAL CARE NURSES JOURNAL
EDITORIAL "TOWARDS 2000" As the transfer of pre-registration education enters its final phase with the last intakes of student nurses into the remaining hospital training programs in 1990, it is timely to reflect upon where post-registration education is going. The standard of hospital based critical care courses in Australia is of the highest level. In the past, graduates from these programs have obtained significant positions both in Australia and overseas, on the strength of careers built upon a hospital certificate course. Today, Critical Care Registered Nurses (CCRN) are at a cross-roads in their education. The striving for accreditation and status associated with growth of a profession is creating significant pressures on registered nurses in Intensive Care Units to see college awards as the sole basis for practice. As CCRN's we need to be concerned about future direction, as the type of education provided in college programs must be appropriate to our professional needs. Whilst theoretical frameworks and concept based practice have a part to play in critical care education we must not lose sight of the importance of competent clinical practice. The (currently less favoured) physiology knowledge base underpins much of the CCRN's competent practice and the expert nursing assessment and anticipation skills required for this, cannot be learnt in education programs isolated from the practice setting. For the future, we need a diversity of offerings in the education arena so as to satisfy both academic and tertiary needs as well as practice needs. We need to ensure that competency achievement and skills acquisition remain significant components of post-registration courses. Standardisation of what is or is not required in critical care courses should become a major focus for concerned CCRN's. It is not appropriate for a range of different organisations to continue to accredit a range of different programs in different ways. We need some consistency between states in approaches and I believe that the CACCN is one umbrella under which we could achieve this. Maybe it is time that the feuding between Nurses' Boards and Employers over recognition of courses ceased and we as CCRN's took on board the responsibility for accrediting courses through the CACCN. We have in the past shown professional leadership and direction through our standards writing and perhaps now, we should confirm our role as experts in critical care nursing, by pursuing the goal of accreditation of courses throughout Australia. Perhaps the CACCN as an expert professional organisation representing all critical care nurses in Australia should be that course accreditation body.
DAVID WHITE PRESIDENT ASCCN
2
EDITORIAL "TOWARDS 2000" As the transfer of pre-registration education enters its final phase with the last intakes of student nurses into the remaining hospital training programs in 1990, it is timely to reflect upon where post-registration education is going. The standard of hospital based critical care courses in Australia is of the highest level. In the past, graduates from these programs have obtained significant positions both in Australia and overseas, on the strength of careers built upon a hospital certificate course. Today, Critical Care Registered Nurses (CCRN) are at a cross-roads in their education. The striving for accreditation and status associated with growth of a profession is creating significant pressures on registered nurses in Intensive Care Units to see college awards as the sole basis for practice. As CCRN's we need to be concerned about future direction, as the type of education provided in college programs must be appropriate to our professional needs. Whilst theoretical frameworks and concept based practice have a part to play in critical care education we must not lose sight of the importance of competent clinical practice. The (currently less favoured) physiology knowledge base underpins much of the CCRN's competent practice and the expert nursing assessment and anticipation skills required for this, cannot be learnt in education programs isolated from the practice setting. For the future, we need a diversity of offerings in the education arena so as to satisfy both academic and tertiary needs as well as practice needs. We need to ensure that competency achievement and skills acquisition remain significant components of post-registration courses. Standardisation of what is or is not required in critical care courses should become a major focus for concerned CCRN's. It is not appropriate for a range of different organisations to continue to accredit a range of different programs in different ways. We need some consistency between states in approaches and I believe that the CACCN is one umbrella under which we could achieve this. Maybe it is time that the feuding between Nurses' Boards and Employers over recognition of courses ceased and we as CCRN's took on board the responsibility for accrediting courses through the CACCN. We have in the past shown professional leadership and direction through our standards writing and perhaps now, we should confirm our role as experts in critical care nursing, by pursuing the goal of accreditation of courses throughout Australia. Perhaps the CACCN as an expert professional organisation representing all critical care nurses in Australia should be that course accreditation body.
DAVID WHITE PRESIDENT ASCCN
2