Roles for the Baccalaureate Generalist Nurse
Baccalaureate Generalist nurses are providers of direct and indirect care. In this role, nurses are patient advocates and educators. Historically, the nursing role has emphasized partnerships with patients – whether individuals, families, groups, communities, or populations – in order to foster and support the patient’s active participation in determining healthcare decisions. Patient advocacy is a hallmark of the professional nursing role and requires that nurses deliver high quality care, evaluate care outcomes, and provide leadership in improving care.
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Changing demographics and ongoing advances in science and technology are a reality of healthcare practice. The generalist nurse provides evidencebased care to patients within this changing environment. This clinician uses research findings and other evidence in designing and implementing care that is multidimensional, high quality, and cost effective. The generalist nurse also is prepared for the ethical dilemmas that arise in practice and will be able to make and assist others in making decisions within a professional ethical framework. Understanding advances in science and technology and the influence these advances have on health care and individual wellbeing is essential. Understanding patients and the values they bring to the healthcare relationship is equally important.
The generalist nurse practices from a holistic, caring framework. Holistic nursing care is comprehensive and focuses on the mind, body, and spirit, as well as emotions. The generalist nurse recognizes the important distinction between disease and the individual’s illness experience. Assisting patients to understand this distinction is an important aspect of nursing. In addition, nurses recognize that determining the health status of the patient within the context of the patient’s values is essential in providing a framework for planning, implementing, and evaluating outcomes of care.
The generalist nurse provides care in and across all environments. Nurses focus on individual, family, community, and population health care, as they monitor and manage aspects of the environment to foster health.
Baccalaureate generalist nurses are designers, coordinators, and managers of care. The generalist nurse, prepared at the baccalaureatedegree level, will have the knowledge and authority to delegate tasks to other healthcare personnel, as well as to supervise and evaluate these personnel. As healthcare providers who function autonomously and interdependently within the healthcare team, nurses are accountable for their professional practice and image, as well as for outcomes of their own and delegated nursing care. Nurses are members of healthcare teams, composed of professionals and other personnel that deliver treatment and services in complex, evolving healthcare systems. Nurses bring a unique blend of knowledge, judgment, skills, and caring to the healthcare team.
Baccalaureate generalist nurses are members of the profession and in this role are advocates for the patient and the profession. The use of the term “professional” implies the formation of a professional identity and accountability for one’s professional image. As professionals, nurses are knowledge workers who use a welldelineated and broad knowledge base for practice. Professional nursing requires strong critical reasoning, clinical judgment, communication, and assessment skills. The professional nurse also requires the development and demonstration of an appropriate set of values and ethical framework for practice. As advocates for high quality care for all patients, nurses are knowledgeable and active in the policy processes defining healthcare delivery and systems of care. The generalist nurse also is committed to lifelong learning, including career planning, which increasingly will include graduate level study.