Advanced Practice Nursing - Essay Example

"Advanced Practice Nursing" is a decent example of a paper on care.
There have been calls for providing quality health care to all patients so as to promote quality health care to all citizens. These demands have seen the rise of roles for advanced practice nurses who are highly qualified and experienced in the field so as to guarantee quality medical care. The competency of advanced practice nurses enables them to have problem-solving skills, which are required in today’s ever-changing environment and the development of complications in patients. I recognize advanced practice nursing as understanding different patients and treating them as unique people with different needs, and this will enable me to treat them with respect and utmost care so as to ensure my practice to attend to all patients is effective.

Advance practice nurses in California and other parts of the United States need a high-level qualification in order to qualify for the job. Currently, an advanced nursing practitioner will need to have a Masters's in nursing, but there are recommendations for the education levels to be expanded to reach the doctorate level by 2015, so as to be sufficiently qualified for the job (Nursing License Map, 2012). The high level of education is aimed at equipping the nurses with sufficient skills, which will enable them to increase their skills in assessing situations, equip nurses with knowledge in planning and implementing care hence this will increase their ability to diagnose and attend to all patients in the best way possible. Advanced practice nurses will be needed to function at an advanced level of independence in their practices because of their high qualifications and experience. They will be required to have a high level of self-sufficiency in issues relating to decision making, managing personal and group medical care, relationships with patients, management of resources, ethics, and all these capabilities will ensure that their practices guarantee positive outcomes. The scope of the advanced nurse will include giving guidance and collaborating with patients and their families (Nursing License Map, 2012). This will be achieved by knowing the past of the patient so as to comprehend the nature of their ailment. This requires cultural competency on the part of the nurse, and this will ensure that health care is effective depending on the beliefs of the individual.

In this respect, a family nurse practitioner is required to be self-sufficient and able to attend to patients in the same manner that a physician would do. A family nurse practitioner will work in a clinic where they will provide treatment to all patients. They will serve families with healthcare and although they are required to play the role of a physician at times, they will be required to be supervised or be under a close watch of the physician (Nursing License Map, 2012). Therefore, the nurse will be required to offer high-quality nursing while still being able to diagnose and treat various illnesses.

My ultimate career goal is to improve the healthcare system's ability to reach the underserved population. I would like to improve the responsiveness and efficiency of our healthcare system, by focusing on primary care, disease prevention, and counseling.