Advanced Nurse Practitioners effective in the A&E environment - Dissertation Example

Download file to see previous pages... Definition of Nursing
- Nursing is an art and a science.
- Earlier emphasis was on the care of sick patient; now the promotion of health is stressed.
- British Nurses Association definition, 2003: Nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual and potential health problems.
Roles of Nursing
Whether in hospital-based or community health care setting, nurses assume three basic roles:
- Practitioner-involves actions that directly meet the health care and nursing needs of patients, families, and significant others; includes staff nurses at all levels of the clinical ladder, advanced practice nurses, and community-based nurses.
- Leader-involves actions such as deciding, relating, influencing, and facilitating that affect the actions of others and are directed toward goal determination and achievement; may be a formal nursing leadership role or an informal role periodically assumed by the nurse.
- Researcher-involves actions taken to implement studies to determine the actual effects of nursing care to further the scientific base of nursing; can include all nurses, not just academicians, nurse scientists, and graduate nursing students.
History of Nursing
- The first nurses were trained by religious institutions to care for patients; no standards or educational basis.
- In 1873, Florence Nightingale developed a model for independent nursing A & E department to teach critical thinking, attention to the patient's individual needs, and respect for the patient's rights.
- During the early 2003s, hospitals used nursing students as cheap labor and most graduate nurses were privately employed to provide care in the home.
- After World War II, technological advancements brought more skilled and specialized care to...
A & E departments in hospitals throughout the UK, such as investor-owned organizations and corporation chains, earn profit through aggressive marketing and pricing strategies. Emergency room visits to these facilities result in more inpatient admissions than in other (20 percent more) or public hospitals. And, once patients are in the hospital, professionally managed A & E departments more frequently utilize profitable ancillary services--such as the pharmacy, clinical laboratories, and diagnostic radiology --than do other ownership groups. Further, they charge approximately 80 percent more than publics and 38 percent more than A & E departments in downtown UK hospitals for inpatient ancillary services. Profits are also generated through lower salaries and lower staff-to-patient ratios. Though professionally managed A & E departments tend to have smaller facilities than A & E departments in UK hospitals, they utilize a higher proportion of space for patient care.
Nurses, although are cost-effective but difficult to maintain and support in the A & E department, their presence is more likely to help the hospital/A & E Department be accredited than otherwise in various hospitals (Gray 2003). Based on a 2002 Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations study, whereas 14 percent of all hospitals are for-profit, 18 percent of accredited hospitals are for-profit. In contrast, whereas 59 percent of all hospitals are other, only 57 percent of accredited hospitals are. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More