Advanced Practicing Nursing and Approaches to Measuring the Performance of APNs - Term Paper Example

The paper "Advanced Practicing Nursing and Approaches to Measuring the Performance of Advance Practice Nurses" is a worthy example of a term paper on category. Advance Practice Nurses (APNs) are obliged to perform various activities within a health institution after having completed advanced training. APNs include nurse practitioners and nurse specialists. Other nurses who are under APNs include midwives and anesthetists. All of the APNs nurses are entitled to offer direct patient care. This means that they have the obligation of providing education and consultation to patients.

They are also required to offer clinical leadership and in some cases conduct research in their respective areas of operations. This paper provides information that establishes the value of APNs in the medical fraternity.  Reasons for measuring the performance of APNs One of the main significant reasons for measuring the performance of APNs is because there has been a change in response to various circumstances and activities entitled to be performed by these nurses (Brook & Rushforth, 2011).

These changes have occurred because of advancement in core skills, scopes of practice and professional boundaries associated with APNs (Brook & Rushforth, 2011). The other main reason for measuring the performance of APNs is that there is a growing consensus that many of the APNs are embracing other roles and obligations like management and leadership (Brook & Rushforth, 2011). This means that in order to make sure that they can be able to carry out these roles within the recommended and outlined ways, there is a need to measure their performance.

Another significant reason for measuring the performance of APNs is that they are referred to be distinct in the medical fraternity because of their hybrid and quasi-medical practice (Brook & Rushforth, 2011). This means that APNs are obliged to carry out various crucial and autonomous medical operations. In order to be able to perform all these demanding activities, there is a need to measure their performance with the aim and primary purpose being public protection (Brook & Rushforth, 2011).

Approaches to measuring the performance of APNs Kleinpell (2003) indicates that there is a need for measuring the outcome of APNs. In order to measure the performance of APNs in an effective way, Kleinpell (2003) provides the best approaches that ought to be employed. Some of these approaches include physiological. On the physiological approach, some of the recommended area to measure includes heart rate and weight (Kleinpell, 2003). The other approach is psychosocial. Areas that ought to be given the first priority in this approach include attitude and mood.

Moreover, there is also the need to consider behavioral approach (Kleinpell, 2003). This entails measuring compliance and motivational of APNs. Other approaches include functional where activities of daily life can be measured and knowledge where the medical know-how can also be measured (Kleinpell, 2003). Establishing the Value of Advanced Practice Nursing APN offers a significant contribution in the medical fraternity through conducting various roles that in most cases require special attention and extensive medical practice knowledge.

Some of the established value and role of APN include providing a response to the specialization of the increased medical (Furlong & Smith, 2005). APNs also assist in providing a response to the inaccessibility of medical care. Moreover, APNs are expert in clinical practice and therefore, they can be able to enact various obligations in health institutions. They are also employed with ethical decision-making skills that tend to be of significant importance in the medical fraternity (Furlong & Smith, 2005).

Conclusion The above information indicates that APNs are of significant importance in health institutions as they contribute much in giving the recommended help to patients. Moreover, apart from taking care of the patients, APNs are equipped with other skills as explained above that assists them in providing help to a wide scope of areas. This means APNs can serve the patients, other staff members in health institutions and the public.