How to write a nursing essay on Role of Nurse Practitioner (NP) Answered

Nurse Practitioners (NP) play an integral role in improving patient health outcomes in healthcare settings. NPs can be found in healthcare institutions, including emergency rooms, clinics, nursing homes, home-based care, and hospitals. NPs contribute comprehensive care and personalized nursing to health care facilities. The roles of NPs are continuously evolving to accommodate the fluctuating healthcare systems and patient needs. This position requires the clinician to possess core competencies such as ethics, quality, autonomous practice, scientific foundation, leadership, practice inquiry, and technology and information literacy, as documented in the National Organization of Nurse Practitioners (NONPF) (2022). These competencies contribute to content selection and placement on the nursing curriculum and provide the clinician with the necessary skills and attitudes for patient care management.

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Aside from patient management, an NP’s scope of practice involves ordering and overseeing laboratory tests, making diagnoses, and establishing patient care plans. According to Marleen et al. (2019), qualified NPs carry out nursing activities per the legal frameworks in their specific state and the organizational responsibilities stipulated within their organization. This is because some health facilities document reserved procedures that physicians perform in the nursing profession, such as administering injections exclusively. NPs are only allowed to perform the “reserved procedures” after delegation. Clinically, NPs combine medical and nursing care to enhance the comprehensiveness of their services. Licensed NPs practice independently and in collaboration with other health care professionals. The scope of practice of NPs is not limited to patient management and making a diagnosis but also includes management of chronic and complex health issues, health education to prevent diseases, and offering counseling services to patients, families, and communities. Moreover, NPs may also conduct scientific research, act as patient advocates to enhance healthcare, and consult on interdisciplinary health concerns.

According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2022), NPs are unique from other health care practitioners as their role is centered on the holistic well-being of the patient. The four pillars guiding NP’s practice are disease prevention, health promotion, counseling, and health education. NPs ensure the whole person’s well-being by educating individuals, groups, and communities on better health choices. The practice models for Nurse Practitioners include NPs as the most responsible provider and NPs and the collaborative care model (Norful et al., 2018). In the most responsible provider model, the NPs form part of an interdisciplinary team and are assigned the primary care provider of a patient during the patient’s hospital stay. In the collaborative model of care, the NP is not the primary care physician but instead works with other clinicians to ensure comprehensive medical care to the patient. In this model, accountability for the patient is shared between the NP, the clinician colleague, and the senior nurse responsible for the patient care plan for quality health outcomes.

For an individual to become a NP, they must become advanced practice registered nurses with graduate masters, post-masters or doctoral education, and national board certification. NP education follows the educational curriculum to equip clinicians with clinical competency and relevant knowledge integral to NP roles in multiple healthcare facilities. The California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) requires an individual to finish a state-specific program, obtain certification through an approved organization, or undertake a comparable program. The average salary of NPs in California is $73 per hour, with entry-level NPs earning approximately $49.96 per hour.

Conclusively, NPs provide more comprehensive healthcare to ensure quality healthcare outcomes. They can work autonomously as primary caregivers or collaboratively with other healthcare providers to improve patient health quality. These clinicians can work in multiple healthcare settings, including nursing homes, clinics, and hospitals.

Annotated Bibliography

Scope of practice for Nurse Practitioners. American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://www.aanp.org/advocacy/advocacy-resource/position-statements/scope-of-practice-for-nurse-practitioners#:~:text=NPs%20provide%20a%20wide%20range,%2C%20families%2C%20groups%20and%20communities

This article documents the education, professional responsibilities, accountability, and responsibilities of a NP in healthcare settings.

Lovink, M. H., van Vught, A., Persoon, A., Koopmans, R. T., Laurant, M. G., & Schoonhoven, L. (2019). Skill mix change between physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurses in nursing homes: A qualitative study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 21(3), 282-290. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nhs.12601

In this study, the authors examine and document the overlapping of skills between NPs, physician assistants, and nurses while caring for adults with chronic illnesses in nursing homes. NP s add value to holistic healthcare through coordination of roles.

Nurse practitioner salary in California for 2022. Nurse Practitioner Salary in California – 2022. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2022, from https://www.nursingprocess.org/nurse-practitioner-salary/california/

This article documents the reimbursements of NPs in California State according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

References

Norful, A. A., de Jacq, K., Carlino, R., & Poghosyan, L. (2018). Nurse practitioner–physician comanagement: a theoretical model to alleviate primary care strain. The Annals of Family Medicine, 16(3), 250-256. Retrieved from https://www.annfammed.org/content/annalsfm/16/3/250.full.pdf

National Organization of Nurse Practitioners (NONPF). (2022, May 17). What are the NP core competencies? NurseJournal. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://nursejournal.org/resources/what-are-the-nurse-practitioner-core-competencies/

How to write a nursing essay on Role of Nurse Practitioner (NP) Answered

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