Healthcare providers are concerned with increasing patient satisfaction by improving conditions and staff performance. For this purpose, the providers aim to find a correlation between education among nurses and patient outcomes. Even though an advanced degree in nursing has proven to impact patient safety, some scholars argue that education is not the only factor affecting patient health conditions, and other factors as leadership should be considered.
Patient safety is one of the primary goals among healthcare providers and institutions as an inability to provide safety can result in patients’ poor health conditions and lead to death. Medical error is the third leading cause of death across developed countries. Hence, scholars investigate the connection between nursing education and patient outcomes to reduce the percentage of death as undereducated staff can lead to such consequences. According to the World Health Organization, the education of nurses on patient safety contributes to positive outcomes and improves nurses’ skills and behavior. Researchers emphasize the importance of both theoretical and practical knowledge, so the education could become more effective, and nurses could implement their knowledge to ensure patient’s high-quality care and support.
However, not only education provides the necessary knowledge that can influence patient’s safety. For instance, Walker states that negative patient outcomes continue to escalate even though the nurses have the degree. Therefore, he believes that nursing leaders need to consider other factors such as leadership to improve patient outcomes. The ability to apply knowledge requires strong leadership as the education itself may not be sufficient enough. Based on the experience in practice, the absence of a connection between theory and practice resulted in poor patient care as management could not provide the nurse with appropriate guidance, and she did not have enough experience to deal with the case. Hence, it is crucial to have a strong leader who will be able to provide the nurse with instructions that she can apply in practice.
Therefore, healthcare providers should be able to combine education with appropriate management to reach the most efficient results. While a degree is essential in nursing, an inability to implement the knowledge remains an issue. The combination of knowledge and practice can help to improve patient outcomes and contribute to the advancement of the healthcare system in general.