Overview of Advance Practice Nursing
Throughout history nursing has been defined in many ways. In recent years the field of advance practice nursing has emerged as nurses are taking on more challenging and comprehensive roles within the health care field. One may define an advance practice nurse in many ways. According to the Department of Regulation and Licensing in Wisconsin, and advanced practice nurse is a registered nurse with the following credentials: (1) holds a professional nursing license within the state, (2) is certified by a national certifying authority as a nurse practitioners, registered nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse specialist or other nursing specialist and (3) a registered nurse who holds a graduate degree by an accredited university (DRL, 2004). This definition is fairly standard among most other nursing institutions. In most cases advanced practice nurses may not prescribe medications, though there is now a certification APN's can get that allow them to prescribe medications in certain instances. According to the American Nurses Association and advanced practice nurse or APN is an "umbrella term given to a registered nurse (RN) who has met advanced educational and clinical practice requirements" (ANA, 2005). An APN therefore generally h
Lumby makes a good point. It is not nearly as important to define an advance practice nurse as it is to define what techniques, methods and practices nurses will need to adopt in the future to drive health care in a consumer oriented direction. The health care industry has long faced many crises none the least of which is providing adequate health care to an increasingly diverse population. Advanced practice nurses, with additional training and more specialized care, are interacting even more than RN's with patients on a daily basis. They are playing key roles in the health outcomes of patients in the short and long term in many instances. Many APN are also making decisions that ultimately will affect a patient's long-term health and well-being. Issues and Discussion of Advance Practice Nursing Much like a physician most APN conduct autonomous decisions when diagnosing and treating complex symptoms in patients. APN's must not only be clinically skilled at diagnosing and assessing but also integrate important skills such as education, communication and leadership and brings these factors into the patient nurse relationship. Because most people are familiar with the term nurse practitioner or NP, we'll examine the role of a NP more closely. A NP usually works within a clinical setting, private office, and hospital or in a nursing home (ANA, 2005). Many are specialized in a specific field like pediatrics or obstetrics. NP's conduct a variety of medical care tasks, which may include diagnosis, comprehensive medical histories, physical examinations, interpretation of labs or X-rays and patient education (ANA, 2005). Nurse Midwives on the other hand provide gynecologic and obstetric care for women includ
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