Acute Appendicitis: A Case Study Describing Standards of Care.

The delivery of quality patient care is an essential component of the U.S. health care system and is directly related to the morbidity and mortality of patient populations. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released Crossing the Quality Chasm (Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001) to identify methodologies to enhance and support quality patient care. The report indicates there is an imbalance between the ability of health care providers to translate knowledge into practice in the constantly changing arena of health care. To bridge this gap, continuing education and professional training classes are essential for nurses and health care providers. Specialty nursing certification is one approach to validate the nursing knowledge and skills that support and enhance the provision of patient care (Wade, 2010). This article describes one hospital’s journey to increase medical-surgical nursing certification. The American Board of Nursing Specialties (2005) defines certification as the formal recognition of specialized knowledge, skills, and experience demonstrated by the achievement of standards identified by a nursing specialty to promote optimal health outcomes. Empowering nurses through the attainment of knowledge from specialty certification also strengthens professional credibility and self-esteem. The World Bank (2011) states: Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Central to this process are actions which both build individual and collective assets, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context which govern the use of these assets. continued on page 11 Antoinette Falker