The Full Scope of Nurses' Work at the Bedside
Course Overview
This episode unpacks what bedside nurses actually do—and why so much of that high-stakes, outcomes-driving work is invisible in traditional hospital metrics. Using Carr and Vollman’s “The Full Scope of Nurses’ Work in Hospitals” as our springboard, we explore nurse surveillance, anticipatory prevention, care coordination, and the cognitive, emotional, and technical work that underpins safer care—plus how to measure it and support it in practice. Reference points include landmark staffing-outcomes research and documentation burden evidence that shape daily bedside reality.
Listen, Learn, and Earn CE Hours with this podcast course. Available on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast apps.
Learning Outcomes
Upon the completion of this course, the learner should be able to:
- Describe key components of the “full scope” of bedside nursing (surveillance, clinical judgment, coordination, education, psychosocial care).
- Explain how staffing, work environment, and competencies link to mortality and complications, and cite high-quality evidence.
- Identify where current quality dashboards underrepresent nursing’s impact and propose more meaningful nurse-sensitive indicators.
- Outline practical changes (workflows, tech, team design) that reduce non-value-added work and documentation burden while protecting direct patient care time.
- Identify targeted questions for executive teams that align staffing, informatics, and quality strategies with frontline nursing realities.
About the Author/Presenter
Dr. Candace Pierce, DNP, RN, CNE, COI is a nurse leader committed to ensuring nurses are well prepared and offered abundant opportunities and resources to enhance their skills acquisition and confidence at the bedside. With 15 years in nursing, she has worked at the bedside, in management, and in nursing education. She has demonstrated expertise and scholarship in innovation and design thinking in healthcare and education, and collaborative efforts within and outside of healthcare. Scholarship endeavors include funded grants, publications, and presentations. As a leader, Dr. PIERCE: strives to empower others to create and deploy ideas and embrace their professional roles as leaders, change agents, and problem solvers. In her position as the Sr. Course Development Manager for Elite, she works as a project engineer with subject matter experts to develop evidence-based best practices in continuing education for nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Kathleen M. Vollman MSN, RN, CCNS, FCCM, FCNS, FAAN is a Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and Consultant. She has published & lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of pulmonary, critical care, prevention of health care acquired injuries including pressure injury and CAUTI/CLABSI’s and other HAI’s, work culture and sepsis recognition & management She serves as a subject matter expert on these topics for the American Hospital Association and Michigan Hospital Association. From 1989 to 2003 she functioned in the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Medical ICU’s at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Michigan. Currently her company, ADVANCING NURSING LLC, is focused on creating empowered work environments for healthcare practitioners through the acquisition of better skills, attainment of greater knowledge, and implementation of process improvement.
Audience/Accreditations and Approvals
TRC Healthcare/ NetCE
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by TRC Healthcare/ NetCE. TRC Healthcare/NetCE is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
This course is designed for the following healthcare professions (select your profession for details):
Nursing
If you require special accommodations, please contact Colibri Healthcare Support by clicking here: Contact Us
