Family Nurse Practitioners - Essay Example

The information would greatly help FNP to work collaboratively with families, effectively promoting the family’s primary role in family health care (FHC), helping them realize their strengths in providing PHC to their families and assess their most suitable coping strategy in times of illness, injury, and calamity, continually encouraging and capacitating them on their essential role in PHC.

Question # 2
The US health care system can be distinguished based on the type of service it provides to keep Americans healthy and alive. The public health care system keeps people healthy by “protecting the environment, making sure water supplies and restaurants and food are safe, providing preventive health services, and… helping people make behavioral choices that improve or protect health: for example, not smoking, eating well, exercising, and reducing stress” (Jonas, Kovner & Knickman, 2008, p. 5) helps the FNP make families aware of healthy living and condition. The medical care system made up of hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and the like, which main task is to restore health, gives the FNP reliable partners in providing FHC in cases of health problems requiring serious medical attention, beyond the FNP’s training and authority. The health insurance system that pays for family health services gives financial security to families making it easier for the FNP to access better health care and to focus the family’s attention on improving their health condition.

Question # 3
The US law requires that a nurse practitioner (NP) is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) with a completed post-graduate education. NP can only practice family nursing if they are licensed or certified to do so by the state nursing boards and by the board of medicine in the states of AL, MS, NC, SD, and VA. However, the specifics of the authority of FNP such as the scope of practice, reimbursement, and prescriptive authority vary from state to state. For example, a summary of APN legislation regarding NP’s prescriptive authority shows that ‘NPS may receive and/or dispense drug samples based on authorized scope of practice, rules and regulations, or statutes. (Philips, 2005, pp. 16-17)

Question # 4
The unique position of FNPs in providing primary healthcare to families – today’s basic social unit that holds the society together, and the academic training they are required to complete make them indispensable partners of the medical profession in making healthcare provision truly responsive to patients’ needs. As such, FNPs are the strong bridge that effectively connects families to the healthcare system in their active role in promoting family-oriented PHC. Remove FNPs and effective health care provision would hardly be achieved. Read More