Introduction
Nowadays, there is a global tendency that aims at improving the quality of healthcare by reviewing the roles of practitioners, including nurses. According to the modern approach, nurses are encouraged to pursue an advanced practice, which consists of more in-depth training at the master’s level and an enhanced role in the healthcare system. Such an approach allows for nurses’ broader engagement in the medical processes and enhances their areas of expertise. The objective of this paper is to examine the benefits of an advanced practice degree for practicing nurses and the health system.
Reasons for Pursuing an Advanced Nursing Degree
The nature of advanced nursing reflects modern tendencies in terms of healthcare quality and accessibility. According to the United States Institute of Medicine (2011), the Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced in 2010 set the vision for the country’s health system development. Consequently, new initiatives were implemented in order to increase the quality and cost-efficiency of health services. Accordingly, the system encourages practicing nurses to pursue a higher degree and work on more advanced tasks. Goldsberry (2018) states that today’s healthcare delivery situation is as complex and fragmented as ever, which calls for an increased level of interprofessional cooperation. The concept of such cooperation implies that nurses should take an active part in all processes alongside other practitioners. Therefore, current circumstances require that strong leaders emerge among nurses to tackle numerous topical issues. One of the objectives of an advanced degree is to teach nurses new indispensable competencies and develop their leadership skills, which will help them fully realize their potential during future practices. As a result, an advanced degree in nursing will provide practitioners with important skills relevant in today’s landscape.
Advanced Nursing Degree’s Role in Patient-Centered Care and Decision-Making
As mentioned above, nowadays there is a high demand for strong leaders among medical professional groups, including nurses. Effective decision-making is one of the crucial competencies of a leader, and an advanced degree prepares nurses for this role. On the other hand, decision-making in healthcare requires the participation of different professional groups. Therefore, this concept correlates with the vision described by the U.S. Institute of Medicine (2011), according to which nurses should be considered rightful partners with other members of the staff. Subsequently, nurses’ participation in decision-making, which requires an advanced degree, follows the principle of interprofessional collaboration envisioned by the system.
In addition, advanced nursing correlates with the concept of patient-centered care, which promotes health services accessibility, as well as its overall focus on the patient’s needs and preferences. Due to the position’s particularities, nurses work directly with patients on a closer level than other practitioners. Therefore, they should be encouraged to enhance their areas of expertise in order to translate in-depth knowledge into actual patient support. As a matter of fact, research shows that advanced practice nurses’ involvement in the process brings substantial results. Weber et al. (2020) concluded that delirium patients who had consultations with advanced practice nurses demonstrate significant improvements in respect to their conditions. Overall, the research shows that advanced education allows nurses to perform more efficiently in terms of patient-centered care and partake in decision-making on equal terms with other practitioners.
Advanced Nursing Degree’s Role in Career Advancement
Modern views on healthcare encourage deep transformations of the system, and the nurses play a crucial part in the process. An advanced degree allows nurses to opt for one of four careers in the United States, as listed by Parker and Hill (2017): “clinical specialists, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists” (para. 8). Therefore, there is an opportunity for nurses to become either a generalist or a specialist and pursue a particular sphere within the healthcare system. Parker and Hill (2017) also state that advanced degrees lead to a greater level of appreciation and recognition of nurses while allowing them to engage in treatment evaluation and decision-making. Logically, a higher level of recognition implies better career opportunities. The U.S. Institute of Medicine (2011) envisions a seamless progression path for nurses, beginning with academic levels and continuing into their professional advancement. Therefore, an advanced degree makes it easier for nurses to receive due recognition and progress in their careers.
Additionally, the healthcare system is currently on the path of profound transformation. The U.S. Institute of Medicine (2011) relies on the Affordable Care Act as the primary impetus of new initiative implementation. However, as mentioned above, health services are envisioned to be not only affordable but also patient-oriented and cost-efficient. Advanced practice nurses fit into the new system perfectly, as their involvement corresponds with all the criteria. In fact, their increasingly important role has become the manifestation of the system’s revision. Therefore, an advanced degree offers nurses a variety of opportunities to become a vital element of the redesigned 21st-century healthcare.
Conclusion
In conclusion, today’s healthcare is characterized by profound changes that encompass the system in general. Advanced nursing practice correlates with the modern vision proposed by the Affordable Care Act and other recommendations of official institutions. There is currently a demand for qualified specialists from all areas of expertise within the healthcare system in accordance with the increased interprofessional collaboration strategy. An advanced nursing degree provides practitioners with in-depth knowledge and serves to develop their leadership skills highly required by the modern landscape. Accordingly, nurses who obtain an advanced degree will be able to lead the way in transforming the healthcare system alongside other specialists. Overall, advanced education presents an array of substantial benefits for both nurses and the system in general, serving to make high-quality healthcare affordable.
References
Goldsberry, J. W. (2018). Advanced practice nurses leading the way: Interprofessional collaboration. Nurse Education Today, 65, 1–3. Web.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. National Academies Press.
Parker, J. M., & Hill, M. N. (2017). A review of advanced practice nursing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 4(2), 196–204.
Weber, C., Fierz, K., Katapodi, M., & Hasemann, W. (2020). An advanced practice nurse‐led delirium consultation service reduces delirium severity and length of stay in orthopedic patients: A nonrandomized posttest only evaluation study. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. Web.
The Metamorphosis Of Gregor Samsa And His Family
Introduction
The Metamorphosis is one of the best-known works of German-language writer Franz Kafka. Originally titled as Die Verwandlung, the short story was first published in 1915. Since its publication, The Metamorphosis received a lot of attention from critics and readers, fascinated by the surreal and tragic story of an ordinary man turning into horrible vermin. Most of the researchers and critics pay more attention to the transformation of the central character, Gregor Samsa himself. However, the drastic change in Gregor’s physical nature influences his family’s attitude towards him more than his mind. Structurally and conceptually, the story consists of three parts, Gregor and his family discovering the transformation and their reactions to it, attempts to find some sympathy for him and feeling that they owe him their care, and finally complete indifference to Gregor until his death. The change of attitudes towards him is more dynamic than his psychological alternation. Nevertheless, despite the general pattern of the story, Gregor’s relationships with each family member are different, and after the transformation, they all develop in their unique way. Thus, in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915), Gregor Samsa’s transformation into an insect-like creature is a metaphor for human isolation and misery, but the focus on the relationships between members of the Samsa family allows readers to grasp both Gregor’s deprivation of human interaction and conflicts that the rest of the family faced.
Main body
The Metamorphosis depicts the alienation of a person who is treated by his or her family only as a source of financial sustainability. At first, after the transformation, he remained the same person on the inside, but despite that, his relationships with his sister and parents were deeply affected by it. For the Samsa family, it became impossible to preserve the relationships they had before Gregor’s metamorphosis; they unwillingly became hostile and even cruel to him, even though as a person he did not undergo any changes. At the beginning of the story, having discovered his metamorphosis, Gregor is not terrified; he only worries about his family’s inconvenience because of it. Existence in the form of a monstrous insect does not strike him as worse than his own life and work as a salesperson. He despises his job and only keeps it for his family´s well-being and for his sister to have enough money to attend a music conservatory. On the other hand, Gregor tries to prove to his father his worth for the family. When the Samsa family notices that he did not get up for work and did not answer them through the door, they showed concern and fear. However, it is very soon clear that they mostly worried not about Gregor himself, but about the fact that he would not be able to support the family financially in his new state. His father’s first emotion concerning the transformation is pure anger; he tried to hurl Gregor back to his room.
Surreal and tragic circumstances
Surreal and tragic circumstances make the characters of the novella evolve, and their relationships develop. As the relationships in the family develop, in the second part of the story, the Samsa family recognized looking after Gregor in his new state as their responsibility. Being physically disgusted by the creature their son had become, Gregor’s parents entrusted most of the duties that concerned Gregor to his sister Greta, which affected the relationships among the rest of the family:
During the first two weeks, his parents could not bring themselves to come into him, and often he heard them say how much they appreciated his sister’s work, whereas until now they had frequently been annoyed with her because she had struck them as being a little useless (Kafka 23)
Not only Greta prove herself being useful, but also, at first, she was able to preserve some emotional contact with her brother, she tried to find out what kind of food he preferred, kept him fed and his room clean. Greta felt how vulnerable and dependent on her Gregor was. On the one hand, it helped her to overcome her weakness, but on the other hand, she became more authoritative and less focused on her brother’s needs. She decided to move all the furniture out of Gregor’s room, which made him feel even less human. After Gregor’s transformation, his sister evolved in a much stronger personality. However, Greta was not the only one, who had new responsibilities. Being no longer able to rely on his son’s financial support, Mr. Samsa had to return to his workplace. In some way, it enabled him to feel better about himself; which was why he took on the role of leader in his household and found his self-worth in it (Holland 146-147). He no longer saw Gregor as his family member, only as a threat to his wife and daughter. To protect them, Mr. Samsa did not hesitate to throw apples at Gregor, which eventually led to his son’s death.
The indifference of the Samsa family
For Mrs. Samsa, her son’s transformation became a reason for an inner conflict. Despite the terror after first seeing the vermin, she recognized her son in his new form. Her maternal feelings made her sympathetic to him, yet she was physically revolted by what he had become. She was ashamed of living with such a creature, and in the same time, she was ashamed of herself being not able to look after him as a mother because of her disgust. The only solution Mrs. Samsa could find was to deny the human nature of the creature Gregor had become. Soon all members of the Samsa family ceased to think of Gregor as one of their own and grow indifferent to him and his death, even his sister Greta:
I won’t utter my brother’s name in the presence of this creature, and so all I say is: we must try to get rid of it. He must go…that’s the only solution, Father. You must try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor… If this were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that human beings can’t live with such a creature, and he’d have gone away of his own accord (Kafka 38).
Conclusion
While Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis is certainly apparent on the outside, the most drastic changes happened in the relationships among the members of the Samsa family. After Gregor’s transformation, the rest of his family became more self-sufficient, decisive and strong, because they had to survive without Gregor’s financial support and leadership. Dealing with their new difficulties, the three of them grow closer as a family. On the other hand, they were disgusted by and ashamed of his new form so much that they could not relate to him. Their family bonds were shattered, and both Gregor’s and his family’s attempts to adapt to the situation only made it worse. Eventually, the only solution for the family to move on was to grow indifferent by dehumanizing the creature Gregor had become. His metamorphosis led their relationships to the situation, where his parents and sister denied Gregor belonging not only to their family but also to humankind.
References
Holland, Norman. “Realism and Unrealism: Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Modern Fiction Studies 4.2 (1958): 143-50. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis: The Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996. Print.
Essay Voice-over
Confederation And The Constitution: Principal Differences
The Articles of Confederation adopted approximately by the end of the eighteenth century functioned as the first corpus of fundamental principles for governing the United States. This document produced by the Continental Congress was not sufficient to ensure that a state functions efficiently, as it, for instance, did not warrant the state’s ability to tax (Clark et al. 227). Consequently, a new collection of fundamental principles accounting for gaps in the Articles of Confederation was needed. Despite several similarities, the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation diverge considerably in several aspects.
One of the principal distinction lies in the meaning of these two notions – the Constitution seemingly determines a country as democratic, whereas the Articles of Confederation functioned to consolidate decentralized autonomous state under a feeble government (Maggs 432). Another significant divergence is that the Constitution established three branches of government (legislative, executive, and juridical). Under the Articles of Confederation, only the legislative branch represented by Congress was acknowledged. Additionally, the Constitution determined the state as federalist and divided responsibilities between national and local governments, a distinction absent in the Articles of Confederation.
Furthermore, these two documents viewed the distribution of power in the voting system differently. As determined by the earlier document, each state had just one vote. On the other hand, in the Constitution, votes are distributed among representatives in the parliament. Concerning legislature, the Articles of Confederation favored unicameralism; contrarily, the following document established bicameral Congress with its further subdivision (Clark et al. 239). Trade regulation is another essential area that the documents approached from different perspectives. The Articles of Confederation did not create a foundation for the national government to control commerce (Maggs, 422). This issue was covered in the Constitution, which warranted the government power to regulate trade. Although the Articles of Confederation depart considerably from the outlined in the Constitution principles, it laid the foundation for the appearance of the document. In summary, the numerous fundamental distinctions concern the power distribution between the states and federal government, voting and taxing systems, trade control, and legislature.
In opposing the Constitution, Anti-Federalists partially relied on the argument that it would provide too much power to the centralized government, thus endangering each states’ autonomy. Moreover, Clark states they feared that “the Constitution would create a government of “the few and the great” and exclude “those of the middling class of life” whom the revolution had brought into politics” (240). These worries were, to a degree, justified by the American Revolutionary War and struggle for independence. Anti-Federalists envisioned that a president would be a new king and the states deprived of their sovereignty (Clark et al. 241). These predictions seem to be correct to a limited degree as the Constitution presented the centralized government with the ability to tax and regulate commerce. Thus, it took over certain powers that were initially under local command.
Nevertheless, the document separates powers vertically – by fixing and validating the extent of local government authority, the Constitution assures that each state possesses the necessary degree of autonomy. It also accentuates the need for subordination to the federal government to operate efficiently as a single unit (Beienburg 109). It is stated in the Consitution that powers are reserved to the States or People (Amend. X). Therefore, Tenth Amendment serves as a line of defense from anti-federalist anxiety, guaranteeing that the essential right for freedom and autonomy is preserved and that the federal government hypothetically is not able to deprive state governments of their powers.
Works Cited
Beienburg, Sean. Prohibition, the Constitution, and States’ Rights. University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Clark, Christopher, et al. Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History. Vol. 1: To 1877, 3rd ed., Bedford, 2007.
Maggs, Gregory. “A Concise Guide to the Articles of Confederation as a Source for Determining the Original Meaning of the Constitution.” SSRN Electronic Journal, vol. 85, 2017, pp. 397–450.
U.S. Constitution. Art./Amend. X. Web.