During the year 1982, Dr. Kathleen Holland decided to open her own pediatrics clinic in Kerrville, Texas. She would need help to run her clinic and so she hired licensed vocational nurse, Genene Anne Jones. Jones had been employed by a hospital prior to working in Holland’s clinic. She was a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio. Her peers began to notice that more of the child patients were dying only during her shift.
Advanced practice nurses (APN) have a vital role in the future of health care, especially since the enactment of the Affordable Health Care Act. With more citizens having health insurance coverage they will be seeking health care providers, and there are not enough physicians to care for them all. According to Letiziam (2014), advance practice nurses are licensed autonomous health care providers that have been trained to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients and their conditions. Advanced practice nursing is an umbrella that covers four separate roles of nurses, this includes: the certified nurse midwife (CNM), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), certified nurse practitioner (CNP), and certified nurse specialist (CNS).
Nurse practitioners will be present at all outpatient locations functioning as primary care providers in family practice and other practice settings (pediatrics, geriatrics, acute care, and other specialties). CNMs will be providing midwifery care along with primary health care of women. Nurse-midwives in United States have demonstrated excellent results in their field of practice throughout the years, especially attending to underserved, uninsured, low-income women (Lindeke, Fagerlund, Avery, & Zwygart-Stauffacher, 2010). CNSs will serve the role of case managers and care coordinators mainly at the hospital leading discharge planning of those patients with complex health problems. CRNAs will provide their services at the hospital for the patients in the intensive care unit.
As we have been noted the role and the scope of practice of the nurse practitioners in the healthcare system are unmeasurable. The nurse practitioners (NPs) play a tremendous role in providing healthcare to the people in the United States. Their presence has been recognized in developing the health care industry not only in the US but also globally. Despite the role that the NPs have played into the healthcare system, they still encounter some challenges that can impact their practice. One of these challenges is the NP autonomy of practice.
These studies illustrates that NPs can play a key role in providing services to health care market. NPs provide a full range of high quality care to patients of all ages. These services include primary care, acute care, special health care services such as oncology, gerontology health, or women’s health to name a few (American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), 2015). NPs practice in many health settings, including private physician office, hospital, urgent care site, emergency room, community health center, school, and others. Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) are NPs are primary care providers who focus on
Ford, L. (1975). An interview with Dr. Loretta Ford, The Nurse Practitioner: A Journal of Primary Care Nursing, 1, 1, p 9. (A) This article presents the views on the role of the nurse practitioner, the beginnings of the program at the University of Colorado and the social forces bringing about the new role.
Larson (2015) highlights “Nurse Jackie” as a renowned representation of a professional nurse, in comparison to the more popular that showcase physicians. However, the portrayal in both situations depicts erroneous images of the nursing profession. In the case of Nurse Jackie, the media promotes nurses as skillful, competent, and knowledgeable; but, also as a junkie with limited interpersonal skills. This series paints nurses in a negative light.
The topic of my capstone project is to educate other members of the team such as respiratory therapist, pharmacist, and radiology technicians about the scope of practice and the role of the nurse practitioners in different settings including the emergency department. Many of these co-workers have a lack of information about the skills, duties, and responsibilities of the nurse practitioners and sometimes this can delay treatment for patients due to clarifications for orders. If the roles of the nurse practitioners are explained and clarified to other members of the team the treatments for patients can be executed faster, but also “Advanced Nurse Practitioners can have a positive impact on other staff members by improving knowledge, skills
Recently the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) became a very important profession due to the major changes in the healthcare system and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) goals that focus on providing patients with affordable but quality care, improving patient health outcomes, expanding care to the underserved areas, and lowering the costs. It became apparent that over the years nurses played an important role in healthcare system. According to the National Governors Association (2012) “The demand for primary care services in the United States is expected to increase over the next few years, particularly with the aging and growth of the population and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)” (p. 1). In addition,
Roles of the Professional Nurse The role of the professional nurse in today's healthcare setting continues to expand as our healthcare delivery system in the United States changes. Historically, nurses have delivered care in a system that has been "illness" centered. Increases in knowledge of disease, coupled with a desire to decrease the costs of delivering health care have shifted the U.S. model of care to one of prevention (IOM, 2010, p. 1-1). The professional nurse continues to have eight interrelated roles in caring for their patients.
After 10 years working as a registered nurse in many aspects of healthcare, felt an overwhelming desire to advance my career and myself to expand my role in caring for others. Becoming a nurse practitioner has always been a goal of mine. During my time working as a nursing manager, I became acutely aware of the need of skilled and talented providers that desire to provide passionate care to all individuals. I became especially concerned with the needs those with limited access to healthcare services. I knew my desire to care for individuals in a more autonomous role and I set out to develop the skills needed to meet the need I witnessed.
Retrieved from: https://www.aanp.org/legislation-regulation/state-legislation/state-practice-environment. Villegas, W.J. & Allen, P.E. (2012). Barriers to advanced practice registered nurse scope of practice: Issue analysis. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 43(9), 403-9. DOI:
This career did not come from nowhere, it began in 1965. " Loretta Ford and Henry Silver, a nurse and a physician, created the first training program for nurse practitioners. In 1970s, they documented that they increased the availability of primary care services" (O'Brien). I chose this career because nursing has always been
The school taught hospital and home care nurses how to teach other nurses. She was aware of the poor reputation of nurses and sought out to change the image of nursing. To improve overall conditions for nurses, she began working relationships with philanthropists, journalists, law makers, and administrators so that patient care would improve and respectable women would be drawn to the profession. Using her strong voice and determination, she fought constantly for healthcare reform for all individuals and sought for an improvement in health standards focusing on cleanliness and
In the U.S. (and increasingly the United Kingdom), advanced practice nurses, such as clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, diagnose health problems and prescribe
