Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Analysis

350). Due to the increase in accountability of FNPs to provide safe, quality, and cost-effective health care, it is imperative that the nurse is fully prepared for practice as a nurse practitioner (NP). The outcome of the NP’s role transition can be inhibited or promoted by different transition conditions, such as the environment, availability of resources, support, and nursing experience. All of which fall into the lines of Meleis’s types of transition, making the process complex and multidimensional (Meleis, et al., 2000, p. 18). The role of nurse practitioners has extended in practice to provide comprehensive care. However, as the nurse transitions he or she must adapt to new ways of thinking, and change behavior patterns to facilitate the transition (Meleis, 2010, p. 431). The nurse must work collaboratively with physicians to solve patient problems and care for the patient effectively due to the rise in complex patient

Advanced practice nursing (APN) can be defined in many ways and differs from basic nursing practice. ANA (2010) defines APN as incorporation and application of evidenced based practice that is accomplished during graduate school. The AACN distinguishes the role of the APN by stating that they have a direct clinical focus. AACN states that interventions taken by APNs have an impact on patient care outcomes. APNs must put patient care and health care policy first. Cockerham and Keeling define APN as specialist in nursing (2014). Each definition is very different, but they are all important concepts that make up the role of an APN. The ANA and APRN definations are very similar because they both put focus on the importance of evidenced based practice

The role of the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) is multifaceted. According to the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation (CMAR), the APRN is a registered nurse (RN) who has a finished an accredited graduate-level program to become a particular APRN. The APRN expands one’s expertise beyond the practice of an RN to provide more autonomous and comprehensive care (APRN Consensus Work Group & National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN] APRN Advisory Committee, 2008). Upon reviewing the American Nurses Association’s Standards of Care and Professional Performance, the CMAR, and the local state’s Nurse Practice Act, the APRN may gain insight into one’s scope of practice. However, there are strengths and weaknesses associated with these APRN standards and scope of practice statements that the APRN must consider.

Reflecting on the past seven weeks I have acquired countless knowledge, which I will use to further strengthen my profession as an Advanced Practice Nurse. The course allowed me to think beyond my current practice knowledge and acquired innovative ways to evaluate the situation at hand. The learning objective in program outcome four helps set standards that I will use to guide my clinical practice to meet various healthcare needs. Using the case studies has helped to further enhance my knowledge on disease physiological state, using differential diagnosis, disease manifestations, and clinical presentation. It has also taught me the skills on how to differentiate between similar diagnoses to properly identify the problem and treat the patients.

The four spheres of political action in nursing are government, workplace, professional organizations, and community. They are all interrelated and interconnected. The government enacts policies that govern and affect all spheres. Healthcare policies are often made to ensure access, quality, and affordability of care. It determines the scope of nursing practice at a state level. The workplace serve a specific community and have its own policies to make the organization run efficiently and cater to the needs of the community that it serves. Workplaces follow Federal laws and regulations to ensure public safety. Nurses have to abide by the rules and regulations of their workplace as well as the government. This is also the sphere where nurses can have the most influence.

Role of Graduate Nurse in Informatics are: 1) computer generated nursing care plan for each patient. 2) reminder and prompts that appear during documentation to ensure comprehensive charting. 3) help as a communication aid to other health care professionals taking care of the same patient. For example, Electronic Health Record.

Decision makers will need to determine how to best utilize nurses, technicians, and other professionals to close the gap in providing services to patients. Nurses require less time to train, are less expensive to train, cost less to employ, and can increase the efficiency and productivity of physicians who provide care to patients. The increase in the use of health care services as well as the increase in the number of venues where health care is provided has also increased the job opportunities for nurses and other members of the healthcare workforce. The demand for primary care services has stimulated the training of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse

They assess, diagnose and treat acute and chronic illnesses as well as preventative healthcare for individuals and families. As their care is family-centered, they must also be able to understand the relevance of the family’s identified community. In addition to the nine essentials as outlined by the AACN, the FNP must meet competencies in advanced health assessment skills in order to differentiate between normal and abnormal findings. They should able to use screening and diagnostic strategies to develop diagnosis and they must be able to prescribe medications to enable them to work as independent practitioners (Competencies for Nurse Practitioners, 2012). In order to meet these competencies, the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation (2008) requires three separate graduate-level courses in advanced physiology and pathophysiology, health assessment and pharmacology as well as appropriate clinical experiences across the age

In this section, I will start to talk about the nurse practice act and how it improves patient care around the world. The Nurse Practice Act is laws that define responsibilities of the nurse and the scope of practice within their range. The range of activities and services as well as the qualifications for practice. The act describes what constitutes unprofessional conduct of misconduct and investigation and the disciplinary procedures for complaints filed against a nurse. These acts are in place to protect patients and families from harm as a result of unsafe or incompetent practices of unqualified nurses. We use the Nurse Practice Act to protect the patient and their families. Information about the Nurse Practice Act can be found on the National

The Affordable Care Act created new health care delivery and payment models that emphasize teamwork, care coordination, value, and prevention: models in which nurses can contribute a great deal of knowledge and skill. Indeed, the nursing profession is making a wide-reaching impact by providing quality, patient-centered, accessible, and affordable care.

The shortage of primary care physicians has been a problem in health care system and will continue to the next decade due to increasing of aging population. According to National Governors Association (NAG) (2012), the growth of the aging population combined with the initiative of the Affordable Care Act, the problem of primary care providers shortage is worsening. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are educated and prepared to perform primary care services as physicians do. More importantly, studies showed that NPs’ role as primary care providers achieve equal or higher patient satisfaction rates (Evangelista et al., 2011, Albers-Heitner et al., 2013). These studies illustrates that NPs can play a key role in providing services to health care market.

According to Garment (2013), “The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that the U.S. will face a physician shortage of over 90,000 physicians by 2020; a figure that’s expected to reach over 130,000 by 2025” (p.4). The increasing amount of money required for health care services from a physician is a driving force to pursue alternative ways of receiving primary care. According to The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2013), “NPs in a physician practice potentially decreased the cost of patient visits by as much as one third, particularly when seeing patients in an independent, rather than complementary, manner” (p. 2). NPs are maintaining the standard of care and for a lesser amount for patients to pay. Mid-level practitioners are completing the same amount of work and improving the quality of care. According to Garment (2013), “However, decades of studies have demonstrated that, when permitted to practice to the full extent of their training, NPs and Pas can perform a majority of the tasks that physicians do while providing the same quality of care” (p. 2). In addition to providing the same standard of care for less money, there is a reduced salary expense when going from a base physician salary to a mid-level

The overall goal of an ACO, which may include physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals, is to provide quality care while meeting defined outcomes and indicators. Overall, the implementation of the ACO should allow for decreased healthcare expenditures. The concept of the ACO is not without barrier to implementation; it affects all healthcare providers and requires extensive interdisciplinary work and increased communication. Nursing practice is influenced by an ACO; staff nurses will be influenced and advanced nurses will be affected. Overall, additional responsibility will be placed on the role of the

The affordable care act is committed to adapting to the changes in healthcare and providing nurses with the upmost education to help nurses adapt to the changes and overcome them effectively. The affordable care act is some ways has allowed nurses to immerse in new learning opportunities and play important roles in leading change in the health care delivery system.

Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare industry. The nurse workforce is made up of licensed nurses: registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), along with nurse aides. Registered nurses are responsible for assessments of patients’ needs, development of care plans, medication administration, and treatments, while licensed vocational nurses perform specific care under the delegation of the registered nurses and supervisions. Nursing aides perform activities of daily living (unskilled attention) to the patient. Adequate nursing staffing is essential to both patient care and outcomes, also to the retention of nurses while inadequate staffing creates problems for both the patients and