Nurse Educator Describes Most Rewarding Aspects of Nursing

Steve Adubato converses with Donna Stankiewicz, Associate Dean of Nurse Education and Sciences at Passaic County Community College, about patient-centered care and the impact of the Affordable Care Act on nursing.

10/26/16 #1914

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to welcome Doctor Donna Stankiewicz who is Associate Dean, Nurse Education and Sciences, at Passaic County Community College. Good to see you Doctor. Thank you for having me. You were just telling me that you've been involved in nursing for 39 years. Yes. Which is fascinating because I'm curious when you knew you wanted to go into nursing. I think as a child I had the interest in science and health, but I didn't know at that time it would be nursing. You know, I thought about being a doctor, but as I got older and I realized that it is the nurse that spends all the time with the patients. So then I made my decision to be a nurse. Mmm. Nurse education... Yes. Is different from the hands on nursing. Being in nurse education itself... I wan't to be clear on something. Mmm hmm. How has nurse education or nursing education changed in the last ten to fifteen years? Well, nursing education has to keep up with the practice of nursing because we are preparing nurses. We are preparing the next generation of nurses. What I meant was actually being a nurse versus being a nurse... Being an educator? Yes. It's a different field? It is a different field. It's two professions in one... Okay, go ahead. Because you are still a nurse, alright? Always a nurse. Always a nurse. Right. Right. I'm always a nurse and I lead a nursing program that prepares new nurses. So you have to be an educator and so you have that profession as well as the nursing profession. Now, the profession itself... Yes... How much has the affordable care act, we don't know yet because it's still playing out... Right. How much do you believe it has affected and changed, evolved if you will, the profession of nursing? Well I think we're continuing to see how that will play out, but in a number of ways economically of course, it changes the profession of nursing by the way hospitals are reimbursed and what your workplace will look like and the economics of healthcare. And so economics of healthcare affect nursing practice as well. But it also has a role in increasing the areas that we will see nurse practice in or changing some of the areas that nurse will practice in. So, a lot of healthcare is moving out of the hospital. And so... What do you mean by that? Patients don't stay in the hospital as long as they used to. Patients aren't admitted to the hospital unless they are, you know, quite sicker than they used to be. By design..."