Nursing Education and Quality Care: Website Analysis

Introduction

            The healthcare sector has been under scrutiny lately following the high cost of insurance premiums and the low quality of care offered in the medical institutions. The goal of the Affordable Care Act is to target these areas to produce a service that cuts cost and increases the quality of care throughout the country. Furthermore, there are nursing organizations from the state and federal levels that are promoting advancement of nursing education to improve quality of care. The websites of these organizations on the Internet that promote solutions to solve the healthcare crisis are not created equal. In this case, a selection of 10 websites is analyzed with reference to the relevance to nursing education;focus on quality of care, resourcefulness, and support for policy issues in nursing. Each of these areas are rated using a scale of 1 to 4 in which, 1 is poor, 2 is good, 3 is very good, and 4 is excellent. Overall, all sites with a rating of below 12 are considered not so good as they fall below the cut off line rating of 3 per category.

Analysis

Website Title: PubMed

URL:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ (federal)

This website is sponsored by the National Institute of Health and is a tool for students and professionals in the life sciences and biomedical research. This is a catalog of the United States National Library of Medicine maintained by the National Health Institute.With reference to relevance on the focus on nursing education, this site provides information rating excellent (4). In reference to the focus about quality of nursing care, the website has a rating of good (2). The resourcefulness of this site to nursing rates excellent (4). The support for the policy issues in advancing nursing practice, this website rating is very good (3).

Strengths: Large body of research to support evidenced based practice.

Weakness: This website mainly supports medicine as a practice, less emphasize on nursing.

Website Title: American Nurses Association

URL:http://nursingworld.org (Nursing Organization)

Nursing world is an affiliate website of the American Nurses Association. The website provides focused information on career advancement and connects various nursing associated organizations from which nurses and adherent nurses can learn to influence policy or keep up with current information regarding practice and ethics. In reference to relevance on the focus on nursing education as a whole, this site provides information rating excellent (4). In reference to the focus of quality of nursing care, this site rates excellent (4). In focus on the resourcefulness to nursing education and quality of care, this site rating is excellent (4). In reference to the support for policy issues in nursing, this site rates excellent (4). Strengths: This site has extensive resources and broad information covering the nursing profession. Weakness: Overwhelming amount of links relating to nursing across the spectrum of various roles that it becomes difficult to navigate.

Website Title: National Cancer Institute

URL: http://cancer.gov (Topical)

This website is focused with cancer research, treatment and provides clinical trials’ information for cancer patients as well as members of the public with a cancer patient in their family. This site is based on a medical perspective; however it has a significant amount of clinical trials focused on nursing intervention with recommendations for implementation. With reference to relevance on the focus on nursing education, this site provides information that is rated very good (3). The rating on focus of quality of care is very good (3). Regarding focus drawn on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing, it rates excellent (4). Focusing on support for policy issues, the site provides focused information on clinical research and nursing that rates excellent (4).

Strengths: The information provided on the website is highly researched hence reliable.

Weakness: The information provided is mainly useful for the medical field as a whole and not targeted on matters about nursing.

Website Title: U.S. Congress

URL: https://www.congress.gov (Legislative)

This federal sponsored website is policy focused and provides information on education and nursing bills. Users are able to review current bills, passed and denied. It has various links to resources that are both educational and legislative oriented. Its focus on relevance to nursing education, this provides information that is rating is good (2). With reference to the focus on quality of care is rated good (2). The website is rated very good (3) on matters of resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing and medicine. It rates excellent (4) on its support for policy issues.

Strengths: The website offers deeply founded information on policies that govern the nursing profession.

Weakness: The website is not focused on nursing but on various policy issues.

Website Title: Healthy People.gov

URL: www.healthypeople.gov (Federal)

This is a federal government sponsored website managed by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The site focuses on science-based national objectives for improving the health of people in the United States. With reference to relevance on nursing education, this provides information thatis rated excellent (4). With reference to the focus of this site on quality of care, this site rates excellent (4). With focus drawn on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing, this site rates excellent (4). With reference to the support for policy issues, this site rates excellent (4).

Strengths: Offers a variety of tools to be use by people in the healthcare industry.

Weakness: It is too clustered and may prove difficult to navigate especially for personnel who are not well versed with the internet.

Website Title: International Council of Nurses

URL: http://www.icn.ch (Nurse Organization)

This site is the official website for the International Council of Nurses and is self-sponsored. The site has various links to educational and practice links and publications. The site is internationally based and provides both general and focused information on nursing. With reference to relevance and focus on nursing education, this provides information that is rated excellent (4). With reference on education and career advancement, this site rates excellent (4). With focus drawn on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing and medicine, this site rates excellent (4). With reference to the specificity of the information contained or linked in this website regarding policy issue at hand, this site rates very good (3) although it is not focused in the United States.

Strengths: The website is widely accepted as a tool for use by nurses internationally. It is also highly interactive.

Weakness: This website is bulky and slow to use. It may not be used when fast decisions are required.

Website Title: Lippincott Nursing Center

URL: http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/ (Clinical Resource)

This website is self-sponsored and is education focused for active nurses and provides educational resources aimed at ensuring more quality care provision. It also provides information on latest news on nursing and medical concerns. With reference to relevance on nursing education, this site provides information rating excellent (4). With reference to the focus of this site with interest to nursing education and career advancement, this sites rating is excellent (4). With focus drawn on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing, this site rating is excellent (4). With reference to the specificity of the information contained or linked in this website regarding policy issues at hand, the websites rating is very good (3).

Strengths: The architecture of the website is easy to navigate hence ease of usability.

Weakness: The real contributors and the last dates of update are omitted and where available they are limited.

Website Title: American Association of Nurse Practitioners

URL: www.aanp.org (Nurse Practitioner)

The website is funded by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. It rates excellent (4) in regard to its focus on nursing education. With reference to the focus of this site with interest to education and career advancement, this site rates excellent (4). With focus drawn on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing and medicine, this site rating is excellent (4). With reference to the specificity of the information contained or linked in this website on policy issues of quality of nursing and education, this website rating is excellent (4).

Strengths: The website is vast and covers a wide range of issues to assist people who are in the nursing profession.

Weakness: The website is slow due to its vastness and may not be relied in certain situations.

Website Title: Foundation for Nursing Education

URL: https://www.nlnfoundation.org/ (Nursing Foundation)

This website is sponsored by the National League for Nursing and its intended audience is nursing educators in America. Promoting excellence in nursing through scholarships, grants, and research to advance the nations health. In relevance to the focus on nursing education, this website rating is excellent (4). In reference to the focus of this site with interest to quality of care, this website rating isgood (2). The resourcefulness of the site with information related to nursing ratesgood (2). In reference to the information contained on this website regarding policy issues facing the nursing healthcare sector is good (2).

Strengths: Strong support for the research and advancement of education.

Weakness: Lacking in relevant, up to date information regarding current status of objectives

Website Title: American Nurses Association, California

URL: http://www.anacalifornia.org (Nurse Organization)

The ANA, California is self sponsored with a mission to advance the quality of healthcare and improve the ethical practice of nursing by means of legislation, regulation, and advocating policy.  With reference to relevance on the focus on nursing education, this site provides information rating of very good (3). Focusing on quality of care, this site rates excellent (4). With focus on resourcefulness and association of external information on nursing, this site rates good (3). With reference to the specificity of the information contained or linked in this website regarding policy issues of quality and need for a health reforms, the site rates excellent (4).

Strengths: The website has a wide coverage of the issues that regard to nursing and the nursing profession.

Weakness: The website mainly concentrates on matters that are relevant to California and may be irrelevant to nurses from other jurisdictions.

Conclusion

From the websites reviewed in this case, and as presented in appendix 1 below, all websites with a rating of 16 are recommended for use as they focus on policy issues and are therefore,efficient in the promotion of quality education and advancement of a reformed health care. The nursing world website in this case is organization based and offers a variety of resources dealing with health care programs and policies. It provides extended information useful to nursing students and practitioners as well.

References

American Nurses Association. (2014). Retrieved September 24, 2014, from http://nursingworld.org

American Nurses Association California. (2014). Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://www.anacalifornia.org

American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2014). RetrievedSeptember 24, 2014, from www.aanp.org

Foundation for Nursing Education. (2014). Retrieved September 24, 2014, fromhttps://www.nlnfoundation.org/

Library of Congress. (2014).Retrieved September 24, 2014, from http://www.congress.gov

Healthy People 2020. (2014). Retrieved September 24, 2014, from www.healthypeople.gov

International Council of Nurses. (2014). Retrieved September 24, 2014, fromhttp://www.icn.ch.

Lippincott Nursing Center. (2014).Retrieved September 24, 2014, fromhttp://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/

National Cancer Institute. (2014). Retrieved September 19, 2014. http://cancer.gov

PubMed. (2014). Retrieved September 19, 2014 fromhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Appendix A

Summary Table

Website	Use	Frequency Updated	Sponsor	Ease of Use	Quality of Information	Score
1)PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/	Provides Information on statistics and data to understand impact of disease.	3 Updated Weekly	4 Sponsor on home page	3 Clear index, internal & external links work & useful	4 Contains up to date, good quality & broad information	14/ 16
2) American Nurses Association http://nursingworld.org	American Nursing career, credentialing, practice, ethics health and safety, policy advocacy.	3 Updated weekly	4 Sponsor listed on home page	4 Clear index, internal & external links work & useful	4 Excellent quality information, covers wide range of topics and current	15/ 16
3) National Institute of Cancer http://cancer.gov	Research and clinical trials on the latest cancer breakthroughs	3 Updated Weekly	4 Sponsor named on Front page	3 Loaded with info easy to get lost in the maze of research	4 Overall quality of information is excellent broad and current	14/ 16
4) Library of Congress http://www.congress.gov	Info on current legislation and status of bills	4 Updated daily	4 Sponsor named on home page	4 Clear index, internal links work and external links useful	4 Information is excellent broad, and current	15/ 16
5) Healthy People.gov www.healthypeople.gov	Evidence based research with vast resources and ambitious policy initiatives	4 Updated Daily	4 Sponsor named on homepage	4 Very user friendly search bar	4 Information is excellent, covers a wide range of issues, and current	16/ 16
6) International Council of Nurses http://www.icn.ch	Policy action on nursing education and professionalism on a global level	3 Updated weekly	4 Sponsor clearly listed on homepage	3 Navigation is cumbersome site seems outdated	4 Up to date info on global seminars and policy initiatives	14/ 16
7) Lippincott Nursing Center http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/	Clinical resource tools for nurses wanting to sharpen their clinical skills	4 Updated daily	4 Sponsor on front-page website	3 Excellent user experience even has social media links to post info	4 There is a broad range of excellent information that is current.	15/ 16
8) American Association of Nurse Practitioners www.aanp.org	Membership site for Nurses to advocate for professionalism	4 Updated daily	4 Sponsor on front page	4 User friendly with simple links to select, social media links, index	4 There is an abundance of current and relevant information.	16/ 16
9) Foundation for Nursing Education https://www.nlnfoundation.org/	Nursing foundation that raises funding for research for better education help solve the nursing faculty shortage	2 This website gives updates monthly	4 The sponsor is on the homepage	3 The links are useful. The website is easy to navigate. Not much to the site	2 Very little info and is not up to date	11/ 16
10) American Nurses Association California http://www.anacalifornia.org/	Advocacy for nursing professionalism, career advancement and policy support for future nursing initiatives	3 Updated weekly	4 The sponsor is listed on the homepage	3 User friendly however seems very out dated not to visually appealing	3 Excellent info on a limited range of topics	13/ 16

Appendix B

 Website Variable Summary

Website	Variables	Rating	Total out of 16
1) PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for policy issues	4   243	13/16
2) American Nurses Association http://nursingworld.org	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   444	16/16
3) National Institute of Cancer http://cancer.gov	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	3   344	14/16
4) Library of Congress http://www.congress.gov	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	2   234	11/16
5) Healthy People.gov www.healthypeople.gov	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   444	16/16
6) International Council of Nurses http://www.icn.ch	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   433	14/16
7) Lippincott Nursing Center http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   443	15/16
8) American Association of Nurse Practitioners www.aanp.org	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   444	16/16
9) Foundation for Nursing Education https://www.nlnfoundation.org/	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	4   222	10/16
10) American Nurses Association California http://www.anacalifornia.org/	Relevance to nursing educationQuality of careResourcefulnessSupport for Policy issues	3   434	13/16