NUR 512 Module 3 Assignment: Role of a Nurse Practitioner
Abstract
Patients visit healthcare facilities seeking high-quality care that meets their needs. Such care requires adequate, highly-skilled nursing professionals. Herein, the role of an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) has been described in detail. Particular attention is paid to the nurse practitioner (NP), who plays a fundamental role in assessing, diagnosing, ordering tests, and prescribing medications. The reasons for becoming an NP have also been outlined, including passion and an advanced position to influence the nursing practice through education and experience. The other key segment is an article evaluation of the NP’s role in the evolving nursing practice. The article also describes education, regulation, and the work climate regarding advanced nursing practice. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report has described the need for NPs in healthcare, which has been described in-depth. The last section is about the effects of the advanced practice nurse in terms of healthcare industry and patient outcomes, which describes the link between the NP’s role and a better, productive, and efficient workforce.
Keywords: nursing practitioner, Institute of Medicine, advanced nurse practitioner
Role of a Nurse Practitioner
The world is culturally and socioeconomically diverse, and people live in different locations. Together with social determinants of health (SDOH), these factors determine people’s health and well-being. Their influence stems from the fact that health risks, vulnerabilities, and interventions vary with race, location, socioeconomic activities, and lifestyle. Since individuals and communities should be optimally healthy and productive, nursing practitioners are critical in advancing patient care, policymaking, and advocacy. Like other specialties, becoming a nurse practitioner depends on multiple factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a nurse practitioner and other elements related to the practice.
Selecting and Describing an Advanced Nurse Practitioner Role
Patients look forward to comprehensive healthcare services in a friendly, respectful, and safe clinical environment. This underlines the need for adequately skilled nursing professionals, such as advanced practice nurses, to ensure timely and holistic care. In agreement with Bal. (2022), advanced practice nurses are a huge asset to the healthcare system, playing a valuable role in reducing wait times for appointments and offering provider options to patients. Their knowledge, clinical expertise, and perspectives allow them to understand health problems and support individuals and groups on their health journey.
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are among the advanced care providers essential in the evolving healthcare system. Becoming an advanced practice registered nurse implies a higher position and improved capacity to provide much of the same patient care as a physician (Htay & Whitehead, 2021). In this case, the advanced nurse practitioner can diagnose patients, formulate treatment plans, educate, and research. Other responsibilities dominating this specialty include prescribing medications and follow-up visits. Given this, the nurse practitioner’s everyday responsibilities revolve around interacting with patients, assessing their conditions, and ensuring they get the best treatment (Barnett et al., 2022). For instance, family nurse practitioners (FNPs) treat patients of all ages, with much of their roles resembling those of a physician.
Choosing to Become a Nurse Practitioner
Nurses choose different specializations depending on many factors, including passion, a rewarding occupation, and the motivation to make a positive difference in society. One of the many reasons behind becoming a nurse practitioner is career satisfaction. For a long time, in healthcare facilities, families, and communities, I have interacted with individuals with many health problems. Irrespective of their backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and age, these individuals look forward to care providers who understand their issues and can provide effective treatment. As a result, becoming a nurse practitioner gives me the perfect opportunity to meet such individuals regularly, assess their needs, and treat them holistically. As Jean (2023) mentioned, meeting diverse people regularly and hearing their health experiences enables nurses to understand and appreciate other cultures, identities, and nationalities. Therefore, it is a foundation for improved patient care as I interact and learn from patients from diverse locations, races, and religions.
Practice autonomy and more ability to influence nursing also motivate me to become a nurse practitioner. According to Bal (2022), advanced education and training give NPs more autonomy in clinical practice. Although some states still require NPs to work under physician supervision, the opportunity to practice independently is among my primary motivations to advance skills and knowledge to become an NP. Nurses influence the practice in many ways. Besides regular patient care, they evaluate issues hampering health outcomes and implement evidence-based interventions (Clarke et al., 2021). NPs further influence nursing by providing more cost-effective services, helping to decrease healthcare costs. Similarly, I look forward to influencing nursing positively as an advanced nurse practitioner, change agent, and policymaker. Excellence in these roles necessitates advanced nursing skills acquired through the training and education of an NP.
The Nurse Practitioner Role and Article Summary
Nursing research explores many issues from multiple perspectives. Their in-depth study helps to improve nurses’ knowledge while providing a solid foundation for evidence-based practice. Wheeler et al. (2022) provided detailed research on the role of advanced practice nurses, which outlines what NPs do in regular practice. Exploring this article helps readers to understand this critical role and the need for advanced skills. According to Wheeler et al. (2022), NPs’ broader roles include assessing, diagnosing, ordering tests, and prescribing medications for patients. To excel in their role, NPs usually collaborate with other medical providers and systems. Collaboration enables them to provide team-based, patient-centered care, which addresses patients’ multidimensional needs.
Generally, the article is a comprehensive analysis of what qualifies nurses as advanced practitioners, roles, and regulations. Wheeler et al. (2022) demonstrated advanced practice nurses as specialty or generalist nurses with additional graduate education, expert knowledge, and clinical competencies for advanced practice. The authors further outline the practice role of APNs as selected respondents provide. Other components include education, regulation, credentialing, and practice climate pertaining to the NP’s role and other advanced practice nurses. Besides, the article demonstrates the need for NPs in healthcare, particularly due to high consumer demand due to physician shortages in rural areas and other factors.
Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Need for Nurse Practitioners
Organizations, policymakers, and government continue to influence nursing in multiple dimensions. In 2010, the IOM examined the nursing workforce and provided various recommendations through The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report (Academic Progression in Nursing, 2024). The report extensively evaluates the link between the health needs of diverse populations and the nursing workforce’s actions. IOM recommends the need for NPs and an adequate workforce that can practice to the full extent of their education and training. Under Recommendation 1 of the report, it is stated that it is imperative to remove practice barriers to enable nursing professionals to practice independently (Kumar et al., 2020). removing the scope barrier would enable NPs to contribute maximally to healthcare delivery and improve the health of the U.S. population.
The IOM report also highlighted the need for nurses to redesign healthcare. The report recommended that nurses should fully partner with physicians and other healthcare providers to redesign healthcare (Academic Progression in Nursing, 2024). Currently, healthcare delivery faces numerous challenges, including high healthcare costs, a nursing shortage, and a high influx of patients with chronic diseases. While partnering with other care providers, NPs can design and implement policies and evidence-based interventions to reduce healthcare costs and ensure diverse populations’ health needs are addressed. More NPs in the healthcare system are also necessary to address the escalating shortage and prevent adverse effects such as nurse burnout and turnover.
Effects on Healthcare Delivery and Patient Outcomes
NPs are centrally involved in patient care, enabling them to influence healthcare delivery significantly. In the present practice, healthcare organizations face considerable challenges as far as delivery and management costs are concerned. As a result, there is an urgent and persistent need for care providers who are able to provide cost-effective care. According to Bal (2022), patients being served by NPs are associated with reduced hospitalizations, readmissions, and emergency room visits. The implication is that I will play a fundamental role in preventing these problems that increase costs and reduce patients’ trust in the healthcare system. Regarding patient outcomes, more NPs in the nursing profession empower the workforce and increase the number of patients nurses attend to daily (Bal, 2022; Barnett et al., 2022). Thus, more patients get timely care, which prevents delays that increase readmissions and hospital-acquired infections. NPs are also adequately trained to provide holistic patient care. These outcomes would lead to more patient satisfaction, healthy patient-provider relationships, and a healthy and productive population.
Conclusion
Patient outcomes depend on the availability and skills of nursing professionals. Inevitably, the complexity of patient needs and the complexity of population health problems require an adequate, highly-skilled nursing workforce. Therefore, NPs are crucial in the evolving practice of healthcare providers, evidence-based practice implementers, and policymakers. As discussed in this paper, more NPs are needed for cost-effective, holistic patient care. Collaboration between NPs and other professionals has also been underlined to maximize healthcare delivery outcomes.
References
Academic Progression in Nursing. (2024). Future of Nursing IOM report. https://www.academicprogression.org/about/future-of-nursing
Bal, D. (2022). 6 reasons to become a nurse practitioner. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/nurse-practitioner/reasons-to-become-np/
Barnett, M., Balkissoon, C., & Sandhu, J. (2022). The level of quality care nurse practitioners provide compared with their physician colleagues in the primary care setting: a systematic review. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 34(3), 457-464. DOI: 10.1097/JXX.0000000000000660
Burwell, L. (2022). The four types of advanced practice registered nurses (APRN), roles, and specialties. Children’s Minnesota. https://www.childrensmn.org/2022/08/17/four-types-advanced-practice-nurses-roles-specialties/
Clarke, V., Lehane, E., Mulcahy, H., & Cotter, P. (2021). Nurse Practitioners’ implementation of evidence-based practice into routine care: a scoping review. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 18(3), 180–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.1251
Htay, M., & Whitehead, D. (2021). The effectiveness of the role of advanced nurse practitioners compared to physician-led or usual care: a systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, 3, 100034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2021.100034
Jean, J. Y. (2023). Why I decided to become an Np. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/articles/why-i-decided-to-become-a-nurse-practitioner/
Kumar, A., Kearney, A., Hoskins, K., & Iyengar, A. (2020). The role of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners in improving mental and behavioral health care delivery for children and adolescents in multiple settings. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(5), 275–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.022
Wheeler, K. J., Miller, M., Pulcini, J., Gray, D., Ladd, E., & Rayens, M. K. (2022). Advanced practice nursing roles, regulation, education, and practice: a global study. Annals of Global Health, 88(1) : 42. https://doi.org/10.5334%2Faogh.3698
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Role of a Nurse Practitioner
Research the role of the Nurse Practitioner.
- Select and describe an Advanced Nurse Practitioner role.
- Why are you becoming a Nurse Practitioner?
- Find one research article, expert opinion about the Nurse Practitioner role and summarize the article.
- What does the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) say about the need of Nurse Practitioners?
- Identify and describe the effects that you will have as an advanced practice nurse in terms of healthcare industry and patient outcomes.
Submission Instructions:
- The paper is to be clear and concise and students will lose points for improper grammar, punctuation and misspelling.
- The paper is to be no shorter than 4 pages; nor longer than 5 pages in length, excluding the title, abstract and references page.
- Incorporate a minimum of 5 current (published within last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions) within your work. Journal articles and books should be referenced according to current APA style.