The Role of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner - Essay Example

After the liberalization of advanced nurses, some research has revealed that this carder of nurses is being underutilized especially within the realism of mental health. The area that they cover is wide since they are based in communities where the mental disease burden is notable. The following are the prescribed area of services that the nurses offer in the community.

The role ranges from admission to discharge and comprehensive pharmacotherapy is involved. On admission, the advanced practice psychiatric mental health nurse evaluates the patient’s status. This helps the nurse to know whether the patient is for admission or discharge on evaluation. The other role is taking overnight calls and coverage when there is a shortage of psychiatrists. More importantly, these nurses can perfume extensive diagnostic skills and come up with psychiatric and mental disorders with the precision of psychiatrists that are perfect. Such competencies are developed during their preparation and education which they undertake role-plays to have a clear understanding of their environment from all angles (Hubbard, 2014). More so, they carry out interventions and implementation of treatment plans for caseload patients that are under isolation. Such interventions include psychopharmacology, and individual family or group psychotherapy. They can cover emergency psychiatric patients. 

Muxworthy and Bowllan (2007), the realization of knowledge that nurses with advanced credentials are needed is paramount since the medical field is overarched by physicians who are less than the disease. The nursing profession is slowly being revolutionized and the dominance is slowly being suppressed by the increased disease burden and the capacity of nurses to perform at advanced levels. The disease burden of mental patients is rising due to several factors such as substance abuse, stressing life, and general pressure that is surmounting the ability to cope (Roberts, Robinson, Stewart, & Smith, 2009). The disease burden psychiatric cases have transcended the training and the output of physicians in the field hence giving nurses an increasing role that needs extra qualification. The need for advanced nurses is first increasing and the landscape of care is first changing. This, therefore, shifts the need for general nurses to specialized ones to contain the need of current disease burden.

It is conclusive that the advanced practice psychiatric mental health nurse carries out a cross-cutting role in ensuring that the mentally ill patient gets adequate care, even if there is inadequate personnel. There are also changes in disease burden that need a novel training program for nurses such as advanced nurses that arrest the inadequacy that comes with changes.