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Nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners, also referred to as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), provide and coordinate patient care and they may provide primary and specialty health care. The scope of practice varies from state to state.

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen, 1990) was to gain insight into the meaning and lived experience of nurse practitioners (NP) with at least one year of work experience regarding their initial transition from new graduate to hospital-based practitioner. This study provided information regarding NP hospital-based transition experience that had not been revealed in the nursing literature. The meaning of transitioning into hospital-based practice was discovered through analysis of nurse practitioner letters and interviews in this phenomenological study. Six themes emerged from this research including: Going from expert RN to novice NP; system integration; "Don't Give Up"; Learning "On the Fly"; They Don't Understand my NP Role; and Succeeding Through Collaboration.   Master's prepared, board-certified NPs in North Carolina (NC) with between one and three years of NP practice experience in a hospital setting comprised the population of interest for this study. Twelve participants were purposefully sampled from nine hospitals in NC. Individual, voice-recorded, in-depth, open-ended telephone interviews were conducted with each participant.   The majority of the participants indicated a timeframe that ranged from six to 18 months regarding how long it took them to feel more comfortable in their NP role, the lack of comfort was most intense during the first nine months of practice. Participants confronted multiple obstacles and challenges as new NPs. These challenges included navigating and negotiating a new health care provider role; becoming integrated into a hospital system in what was a new role for them and sometimes for the system; learning how to function effectively as a NP while simultaneously working to re-establish themselves as proficient clinicians with a newly expanded practice scope; building key relationships; and educating physicians, hospital leaders, clinical staff, patients, and families about the NP

Systematic review of literature on the impact of Nurse Practitioners in Emergency Departments. Limited evidence of high quality. Most high quality evidence conducted in English speaking countries outside the U.S. Evidence suggests NPs in EDs associated with quality care, improved patient satisfaction, reduced wait times. Insufficient evidence related to cost-effectiveness. #BecomingAPRN16

This article examines the documented positive impact of full practice legislation on patient outcomes. Potentially avoidable hospitalizations, readmission rates after inpatient rehabilitation, and nursing home resident hospitalizations were explored. States with full practice of nurse practitioners have lower hospitalization rates in all examined groups and improved health outcomes in their communities.

This article focuses on the Nurse Practitioners contribution to primary care. Randomized trials were performed to help us better understand how Nurse Practitioners compare to Primary Care Physicians in the eyes of patients. Conclusions showed that patients outcomes were equivalent in their satisfaction, physical, social and emotional functioning when compared to seeing a Physician versus a Nurse Practitioner. It was also found during the studies that lower costs of care was associated with NP's.

This article present a gap in research regarding advocacy at the APRN level, despite the large amount of evidence surrounding advocacy at the RN level. The article calls for more research regarding if and how advocacy may differ at the APRN level and how exactly institutions are preparing APRN students for the advocacy role.

This is a toolkit from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners that APRNs can use to stay connected to legislative efforts that impact their profession. "Policy" can be a very overwhelming idea, particularly to someone who does not have experience with that realm of healthcare, so the AANP breaks it down for you. There are issue briefs on things like Full Practice Authority and Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. These briefs give you the bullet points on why the policy is good or bad for our patients and evidence supporting that position. There's other resources as well that can help you find your legislators, find out about federal and state legislation, and get connected to legislative advocacy initiatives in your state. Participating in the legislative process is a really important way that APRNs can advocate for our patients, and this resource will support you in engaging with it.

This resource is a research study analyzing the differences in cost and pediatric patient outcomes between hospital teams run by residents alone, PNP's alone and PNP/MD teams. Overall, the researches concluded that incorporating PNP's into hospital care can reduce costs for patients requiring certain treatments as well as provide care that is comparable to the care given by medical residents.

An interesting article that opines about the DNP. Here's a fairly provocative quote: "When viewed together, doctorally prepared nurses do not spend the majority of their time in direct patient care, but rather in research (11%), education (32%), and administration (30%). With these demanding roles, they cannot be expected to maintain expert levels of clinical competence required for teaching APN students. While research and practice are critical components of nursing, each requires a different skill set and education."

The Mayo clinic offers a form of residency for new grads. Mayo School of Health Sciences educates and prepares allied health professionals. The school enrolls students who excel in academic achievement to become providers of the best care to patients.

Approximately 70 to 80% of healthcare errors are due to poor team communication and understanding. High-risk environments such as the trauma setting (which covers a broad spectrum of departments in acute services) are where the majority of these errors occur. Despite the emphasis on interprofessional collaborative practice and patient safety, interprofessional teamworking in the trauma setting has received little attention.