Advanced Practitioner Nurse - Essay Example

Advanced Practitioner Nurse Introduction Advanced practitioner nurse (APN) is a nurse with a masters or doctorate degree from a nursing university. An APN specializes in a specific clinical area and serves as a leader, consultant, educator, researcher and change agent. The APN consists of roles such as Clinical Nurse Specialty, Acute Care Nurse practitioner, Anesthetists Nurses and primary Health Care Nurses. APNs practices maximum utilization of advances knowledge and skill and uses a wide range of theories and research in meeting patients needs (Melnyke and Fineout-Overholt 2005). The APN can work autonomously with other nurses or collaborates with other disciplines or caregivers. The APN attempts to involve patients and families in their own care as far as possible within cognitive and developmental capabilities. To develop a clear understanding of the APN role and its contribution to healthcare, we will find out what APNs say regarding the nature of their work and examine both the outcome and descriptive research related to APN practice (American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2008). Advanced practitioner nurses provide advanced practice when it comes to caring or planning care systems for patients with highly complex needs. The role of the advanced practice nurse is founded on independence of practice, deep academic nursing knowledge, research application and medical experience. APN demonstrates superior nursing knowledge and blend advanced nursing practice in her/his clinical area of expertise. APN also applies relevant research and wide variety of theories to his/her clinical practice by applying critical thinking and analysis (American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2007). APN conducts advanced health appraisal and participates in clinical decision-makings in her/his area of expertise. APNs implement and evaluate modern strategies and plans for complicated practice problems. They also advocate for patient-centered care systems in the health care system. They do this by constantly evaluating the patients’ abilities to take part in decision-making and consult suitable decision-makers when required. They also involve patients and their caregivers in making decisions related to their own care. They provide patients with the necessary information which can help them in making decisions about their care, treatment or to take part in clinical research. APNs also act as facilitators in the decision-making process of the patients as regards health choices. APNs demonstrate superior knowledge and blend to come up with therapeutic psychotherapy modalities (Malloch and O’Grady 2009). They also support intra- and inter-disciplinary cooperative strategies in clinical decision-making. They do this by appraising, scrutinizing, categorizing priorities, assessing and developing care plans for highly complicated problems facing patients and their caregivers (Fitzpatrick 2007).They can competently do this because they possess excellent interpersonal communication and leadership skills which enable them to uphold a collaborative care among different disciplines in the hospital and district. In cases where the patient’s health problem outer surface the APN’s scope of practice or clinical competence, he/she can refer the case to a suitable health care professional. APN demonstrates advanced skills and ability in her/his practice by following patients across settings. APN hence acts as a role model when it comes to demonstrating advanced nursing practice. The benefits of practicing advanced practice are that the patients experience care that is patient-centered, innovative and satisfying and they tend to display optimum health (Nelson 2008). Advanced nursing practice is a varied and complicated environment and therefore requires consultation. To provide quality patient care it is imperative to frequently consults with other nurses, patients and their families, other caregivers and health professionals. These consultations may be official or casual and may be directed towards a person, group, program or the hospital. The APN possesses advanced knowledge and skills which assist her/him in expounding on problems, searching for alternatives, facilitating change and developing new potential. The APN is in a position to investigates on health problems, provide recommendations and educate patients, caregivers or health professional. By consulting with other care providers, the APN is able to influence the patient-families care plans and provide learning which can be used in the future (Mason 2007). As a consultant, the APN applies his/her advanced knowledge and synthesis the theory he/she has learned when consulting with persons, groups, and organizations. It is the APN who influences the direction of the consultation and develops a collaborative relationship with the consultant. APN is in a position to expound on the varied opinions of stakeholders and discusses the type and length of the association. The APN also plans, recommends and cooperate with the consultant. In addition, APN files the analysis, findings and the recommendations they come up with in the process. In the end, The APN discusses a follow-up procedure to be used (Glasziou and Haynes (2005). Nursing knowledge is continuously developing and growing in complexity. As an educator, the APN assists other nurses to satisfy the present and future requirements of patients, families, societies, peoples and the profession by sharing contemporary knowledge. APN does this by applying advanced knowledge that he/she possess and synthesis the teaching and learning theories he/she has learned when caring for patients. The APN also take part in evaluating learning needs related to development of the nursing profession and others (Bartels 2005). The APNs help in identifying persons and organizations facilitators and obstacles to the education profession. They also identify and generate resources for education. As an educator, the APN oversees the process of implementing planned learning experiences and organizes workshops on her/his specialty at the neighborhood, local, countrywide and global meetings. The APNs help in developing skills for nursing, for example, problem solving skills, clinical skills and critical thinking skills. They also help in identifying and assisting nurses in strategizing and solving learning problems. APNs assess the impacts of educational experiences on nurses’ behavior and on patients’ and hospital’s outcomes. They also encourage nurses to develop their career and assist them in planning to further their education (Mitchell 2006). To develop the nursing theory and practice, it is vital to support research in nursing. The APN helps others to understand and apply research in their area of expertise. As a research, the APN applies research findings in her/his clinical practice and creates and executes research projects. The APN develops the scientific foundation of nursing by applying, assisting and carrying out research studies in nursing and other disciplines (Parker 2009). The APNs possess skills in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and clarify the importance of using research findings in the clinical practice and theory development. They also propagate modern innovations and research findings relevant to nursing practice and patient outcomes. APNs act as role model in demonstrating and supporting critical thinking directed towards research questions and hypothesis formulation. They also create collaborative research proposals in their area of expertise, as either a principal researcher or co-researcher. The APN also guarantees that ethical and legal practices are adhered when carrying out a research study and motivates others to read and analyze research outcomes in health care literature. As a researcher, the APN acts as an external reviewer for research proposals and has the capacity and skills to take parts in research committee (Porter-O’Grady and Malloch 2007). Advanced practice nurse works in intricate systems. To advance the nursing practice and to provide quality care, the APN needs to possess leadership skills. The APN acts as a leader for other nurses, in medical programs, research studies and patient care (Besner 2006). He/she acts as a link between organizations and goes beyond conventional borders. The APN oversees the empowerment of patients as regards public policy matters. He/she displays superior understanding and synthesis of the role of APN within the organization and the nursing profession. As a leader, the APN influences the quality of the nursing practice in various ways. First, he/she shares the knowledge of patient’s viewpoints when planning and developing health care policies and assesses outcomes of policy decisions and disseminates these findings to all the relevant stakeholders. In addition, the APN critically scrutinizes the socio-political factors that may affect policy decision-makings and participate in political process to influence superior outcomes (Xiaoya and Jezewski 2006). The APN take part in recruiting, selecting, developing and carrying out performance appraisals for employees. He/she also cooperate in developing nursing roles in the ever changing health care system. APN predicts future changes in terms of technology, requirements, professional development and changing health care system and suggests suitable changes. The APN also participates in conflict management and resolution within the organization. He/she also displays excellent skills in managing the system, environment and identifying patients’, employees’ and system’s requirements. He/she cooperates in developing strategies, program planning and monitoring to promote innovation. As a leader, the APN retains her/his membership in local, national and international professional unions and can also be elected as a university or college leader Spenceley 2006). The APN works in an environment and not in a vacuum, where he/she interacts with others. The APN therefore supports an environment that will lead to development in health care delivery. Both the APN and the organization are responsible for developing an enabling environment (Brown 2009). It is important to note that the APN can only advocate for a conducive environments but it is for the administration to implement them. The APNs has advocated for environmental supports for advances practice in many ways. First, they have advocated for an employing agency promotes the identification and referral of patients with complex needs and promotes the advanced practice of the APN by encouraging flexible time planning and secluded moment for the provision of direct care. The APN also supports an employing agency that provides mechanisms for documentation and collaborates with other disciplines in planning for improvement in health care delivery. For purposes of consultation, the APN advocates for an administrative structures that support the consultation among nurses, health care professions, patients, families and communities (Schim 2006). Despite the improvements which have been witnessed in advanced nursing practices, there are various challenges that continue to impact negatively on the role of advanced practice nurse. These challenges include lack of model, regulations and standard entry level for APN role. Independent nurses surveys reveals that lack of regulations for the APN role has put most patients at risk. There should be nationally approved minimum standards of competence for nurses in advanced roles. A nurse must possess appropriate degree qualifications to serve as an APN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2006). The other obstacle facing APN role is that most organizations have failed to define the role of the APN based on systematic identification of needs and goals. Most of these organizations fail to assess the local health care need to clearly define the role of APN. As a result, the roles of APN have been influenced by stakeholders’ expectations (David 2006). These include the managers, health care providers and other nurses, leading to role confusion and ambiguity. These have resulted to problems such as role conflict, role overload and different stakeholders’ approval of APN roles. The lack of experience in those involved in APN role definition has led to misunderstanding, under-utilization of the role and contradiction among APN roles as regards function, titling, scope of practice, education, funding and reporting mechanisms (Associations for Prevention Teaching and Research 2009). The other problem is the underutilization of all the role domains of the APN role and the extent to which these roles are actually advanced. APNs tend to value the non-clinical features of their role and these behaviors, obviously, lead to role satisfaction. Nevertheless, inadequate administrative support and competing time demands related to clinical practice and clinical functions impacts negatively on the education, research and leadership domains of APN role. Though the time allocate for the various role domains differs, it is important to strike a balance between clinical and non-clinical activities to promote innovation in the nursing practice (Hanks 2007). Conclusion and Recommendations APNs have a comprehensible theoretical foundation for their practice as discussed in literature and must therefore keep on describing this scope of practice to organizations, managers, nurses and other healthcare experts and clients. The basic role of APNs involves managing the care of the versatile and susceptible populace of patients and families through expert direct care, coordination of care and collaboration. The APNs have faced numerous efforts in their efforts to provide quality care which includes lack of role clarity, few research designs to help in understanding the role of APN and the impact of APN practice on patient outcomes and costs of care, lack of understanding of the role of APN by other nurses, healthcare professionals, administrators and consumers, lack reimbursement for indirect patient care and increased role diversity. Despite these challenges, the APNs have succeeded in providing evidence-based care to patients (Kozier and Erb 2007). To solve the problems faced by many APNs, the clinical resource nurses should consider developing better planning mechanisms and making extra efforts to address the environmental factors, resources and organization’s factors that are necessary for them to perform effectively. Clinical resource nurses should a collaborative, systematic and evidence-based process which can provide information to support the need and objectives for a clearly defined clinical role, encourage orientation to advanced practice, supports full utilization of all the domains of APN, develop a supportive environment that promote role development and conduct continuous monitoring of these roles connected to pre-determined goals (Stanley 2009). References American Union of Colleges of Nursing (2008). The fundamentals of Baccalaureate teaching for practiced Nursing Practice. Washington, DC: American Union of Colleges of Nursing. American Union of Colleges of Nursing (2007). White paper on the education and role of the clinical nurse leader. Washington, DC: American Union of Colleges of Nursing. American Union of Colleges of Nursing (2006). The Fundamentals for Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. Washington, DC: American Union of Colleges of Nursing. 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