Nursing: Nurse Practitioner
The advanced practice nurse is a graduate with a master's or doctorate degree in nursing, certified to guide others in using the nursing process to maximize the community's health outcomes (Smith & Rose, 2011). These nurses are prepared to pursue either direct practice roles, where they interact directly with families and patients to improve their well-being through disease management, or indirect practice roles, where they take a leadership role in the provision of care, but do not engage directly with patients (National CNS Competency Taskforce, 2008). Examples of indirect care activities include developing staff development activities, protocols of care and evidence-based guidelines. Specific direct care roles include nurse clinicians (practitioner) and nurse educators, whereas indirect roles include nurse administrator, nurse informatics, and nurse researchers (AACN, 2015). This text compares and contrasts the core competencies that govern the different roles, and identifies the differences/similarities in the implementation of competencies within the selected roles.
Background of Nursing Competencies
The term 'competency' refers to a person's ability to use their skill and knowledge in a particular area to effectively carry out critical tasks and job functions. The nursing profession has a set of competencies that practitioners are required to meet to be able to conduct their duties effectively. These include:
Communication - the ability to effectively pass information across to a wide variety of audiences
Research -- the ability to generate and apply research data to their area of practice with the aim of initiating change and improving practice
Healthcare, Organization and Policy Financing -- the ability to analyze and understand policy research relevant to their area of practice, and to consequently use it to make cost-effective healthcare choices and ensure quality patient care.
Ethics -- the ability to identify ethical dilemmas, effectively evaluate ethical decision-making, identify conflicts of interest, and take accountability for their own practice
Professional Role Development -- the ability to demonstrate leadership in the delivery of nursing education and healthcare or when the healthcare system calls for change, and to exhibit professional assertiveness...
Nursing Research How Data Collection Influences Statistics Data collection influences statistics in several ways. First, data is collected according to a "category scheme," which is the establishment of meaningful categories in which the data is collected and analyzed (Polit & Beck, 2008, p. 508). If the category scheme is not well developed and meaningful, adequate data may not be effectively collected and examined to inform the nurse researcher about whatever topic he/she
Nursing Theory Caring as an integral nursing concept can be viewed from diverse perspectives. It can be an attribute, a complex set of behaviors, or an attitude. This has made some people believe that it is impossible to improve and measure it although there is evidence that both improvement and measurement are possible. People recognize that caring models of professional practice affect the service users, health outcomes, healthcare staff, and ultimately
Nursing Across Theories Nursing is a core concept that is common across contemporary nursing theories. Even though the definitions, applications, and philosophies are different with each theory, the concept of nursing plays a vital role in each one. Contemporary theories came about when the teaching of nursing students was not sufficient to the performances of what the nurses were being taught in schools and ultimately affecting patient care in the long
Learning in adults is most effectual when the environment is both participative and interactive. Another important characteristic is that learners obtain instantaneous feedback. Teaching methods that necessitate a learner to think though data or information and come to a conclusion or forecast an outcome are more valuable than is reading or lecture. "The minute-to-minute care and monitoring of critically ill patients requires nurses to collect, analyze, and react to
Nursing informatics has been defined as, "a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice" (Shuler, 2011). The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in the information system development, from a feasibility study to the maintenance of the completed system (Rouse, 2009). With these
What is the current level of autonomy among NPs? How independent are nurse practitioners? It is well-known that NPs desire and deserve autonomy -- which gives NPs "substantial control over [their] professional practice" (Bahadori, et al., 2009, p. 513). The research conducted by Bahadori and colleagues shows that of 48 primary care NPs (all of whom attended a state clinical conference in Florida and completed a detailed questionnaire with 30 items
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