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Birth centers run by midwives lead to better outcomes than hospital births

This article was interesting! It talks about the role of Community Health Centers and Public Health response during emergencies.

This is a link to the American Nurses Credentialing Center on renewing your nursing certification

BACKGROUND: The trauma service experienced preventable delays caused by an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education work restrictions and a 16% increase in patient census. Furthermore, nurses needed a consistently accessible provider for the coordination of care. We hypothesized that using experienced acute care nurse practitioners (ACNPs) on the stepdown unit would improve throughput and decrease length of stay (LOS) and hospital charges. Moreover, we hypothesized that adding ACNPs would improve staff satisfaction. On December 1, 2011, the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Division of Trauma reassigned ACNPs to the stepdown area 5 days a week for a pilot program. METHODS: LOS data from December 1, 2011 through December 1, 2012 was compared with data from the same months from the previous two years and estimated hospital charges and patient days were extrapolated. Physician and nursing surveys were performed. Data from 2010 (n = 2,559) and 2011 (n= 2,671) were averaged and the mean LOS for the entire trauma service was 7.2 days. After adding an experienced ACNP, the average LOS decreased to 6.4 days, a 0.8 day reduction. Per patient, there was a $ 9,111.50 savings in hospital charges, for a reduction of $27.8 million dollars in hospital charges over the 12 month pilot program. RESULTS: A confidential survey administered to attending physicians showed that 100% agreed that a nurse practitioner in the stepdown area was beneficial and helped throughput. Dayshift nurses were surveyed, and 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the ACNPs were knowledgeable about the patient's plan of care, experienced in the care of trauma patients, and improved patient care overall. CONCLUSION: The addition of experienced ACNPs resulted in the decrease of overall trauma service LOS, saving almost $9 million in hospital charges

This article describes the orientation process used in a pediatric cardiac center for APNs to increase confidence in skills, knowledge of role, mentorship, and NP retention during the first year of practice.

The role of APRNs continues to expand when current gaps in patient care management and outcomes are identified. Central Arkansas Veteran Healthcare System created the role of Abnormal Radiology Findings APRN with the aim of improving patient outcomes by decreasing the length of time between abnormal radiology findings and decrease of care for our veterans. During the year of research since the advent of this position, the days until decision dropped on average from 38 to 7 demonstrating the efficacy of the role and the ways APRN are well placed within the health care system to provide patient-centered care.

This link shows all the certifying bodies available and has links to those websites The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is the largest and only full-service national professional membership organization for nurse practitioners (NPs) of all specialties.

J Prof Nurs. 2015 Jul-Aug;31(4):340-50. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2015.02.007. Epub 2015 Feb 28. Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't The articles explore the benefits of interdisciplinary care models and shows evidence of the importance and benefits of an interdisciplinary model of care. It highlights how intentional interdisciplinary practice can yield outcomes that are beyond the ability of a single professional to produce and further affirms that nursing can play a pivotal role in developing and implementing these care models and in leading these IPCP teams.

Recruiters reveal how to respond to the most complicated questions.

Dawley clearly outlines the critical role birth centers and home birth during the 1930's and 1940's played in the developed of our current professional midwifery culture.

Definition and education requirements of NP's and history of when they first starting practicing in the US

This article addresses the increased need for APRN's in Primary Care Settings and evaluates their role and outcomes compared to Physician's in Primary Care.

Nurse Practitioner residency programs are a fairly new concept in the healthcare arena. The first program, introduced in 2007, was developed by Community Health Center, Inc. in Connecticut with the goal to increase the number of family nurse practitioners in the community health settings.