Group items tagged

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

Very interesting read. This article provides evidence on why healthcare organizations should hire nurse practitioners based upon the education and training that they receive within their speciality as opposed to their previous RN experience. Many hospitals are struggling with this dilemma: Do we hire the APRN who has previous nursing experience in this area (who is not certified in this area) or do we hire the APRN who is certified to work in this area based on their formal training/education but is a new graduate? This article describes how prior nursing experience with a specific population does not qualify a nurse practitioner to practice without the population-focused education and certificate.

Interdisciplinary Teamwork article

Interdisciplinary team work is a complex process in which different types of staff work together to share expertise, knowledge, and skills to impact on patient care. Despite increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary team work over the past decade, in particular the growth of interdisciplinary education [ 1], there is little evidence as to the most effective way of delivering interdisciplinary team work [ 2].

Interdisciplinary team work is a complex process in which different types of staff work together to share expertise, knowledge, and skills to impact on patient care. Despite increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary team work over the past decade, in particular the growth of interdisciplinary education [ 1], there is little evidence as to the most effective way of delivering interdisciplinary team work [ 2].

This systematic review article has shown that the interdisciplinary care in general medical wards has not made any significant improvement to patient's outcome. This article states that it really needs to look more into their outcome criteria, and I, personally based on this article, think that this article needs to look at more into how interdisciplinary team in this review has performed as a team.

This is a handy article for a quick and dirty explanation of the differences in scope, education, etc. between APRNs and PAs. I'm asked questions like this a lot by curious family members as well as patients.

On several occasions, we get asked, "So what exactly is the difference between an NP and a PA?" This article is very recent and does a really nice job of breaking down the key differences between an NP and a PA on a deeper level.

This article does a great job defining the role, education, and scope of the APRN compared to Physician Assistants. This is a great resource to be able understand the distinction for ourselves and to use to educate others about our unique role in health care as APRNs.

This article discusses the barriers to NP practice with the current healthcare reform by addressing the shortage of primary care providers and the limitations of APRN practice. Barriers that were emphasized include state practice and licensure, physician related issues, education, and role perception. This article stresses that an APRN should be able to practice to the fullest extent of their training.

This is an excellent overview of common barriers to APRN practice that effect the Triple Aim for healthcare: better care (individuals), better health (populations), and lower cost.

This article first provides a brief history on APRNs. It also discusses barriers to the APRN scope of practice.

When I typed in "APRN history" into Google, this was the first item to populate. The article is from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners website and is a timeline of significant events that have occurred over the course of APRN history. I was surprised to see that one of the first NP programs was created at Boston College. My mother is a graduate from their BSN program! The AANP was developed in 1985 and has since helped pioneer the career. Enjoy!

This site breaks down the role of a nurse, how much they've grown, and organizations that have developed, decade by decade.

This was a great overview of the nurse practitioner role. There was also a very interesting infographic on the website as well.

NAPNAP Position Statement on Age Parameters for Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Practice

This article details the age and scope of practice for Pediatric Nurse Practioners based on NAPNAP guidelines. This helps to guide both institutions and practioners with an age related scope of practice.

This article describes feeling like a fraud once in a new role as an advanced practice nurse. It also speaks to how this is a normal feeling and suggests different ways to cope with these feelings to make the transition easier.

In this article, author Lugo discusses the findings of her study relating limits on full practice authority for APRNs to issues of gender equality. She investigated the link between state support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and laws in these states allowing APRNs full scope of practice and prescribing rights. Her study showed that states that have historically and currently supported the ERA in fact allow greater APRN scope of practice, and thus she draws conclusions about attitudes towards women's equality and the regulation of advanced practice nursing, which remains to be a woman-dominated profession.

In this May 2016 article published in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Dr. Nancy Rudner Lugo argues that advanced practicing nursing viewed through a gendered perspective due to nursing's history as a predominantly female profession; because of this, APRNS in states that are less accepting of women's equality have a more narrow scope of practice. There is not currently a national-level evidence based method used to determine APRN scope, and is instead decided at the state level. The author seeks to explain the cause of the discrepancy between differing APRN scopes of practice in different states by comparing the APRN scope of practice between states that did and did not vote to pass the Equal Right Amendment, positing that states with cultural attitudes that are more equitable between genders reflect this at the legislative level, thus explaining the wider or full practice authority given to APRNs in these states. In conclusion, Lugo advocates for increasing the number of women in legislative positions, forming relationships between women's equality organizations and groups working towards expanded health care access, and emphasizing the skills and competency of APRNs in achieving positive patient health outcomes.

This article describes the Consensus Model developed in 2008 for the APRN role for licensure, accreditation and certification across the United States. Though the intended goal for adoption was in 2015 (still has not happened yet), there is still much work that needs to be done at the state and national level to get this to approved.

This article chronicles the history of nursing and how expanding the role of nurses was initially justified. It discusses how this expanded role eventually became the role of the nurse practitioner that we are familiar with today.

I found this article to be completely fascinating as I was almost completely unaware of the history of the APRN role. I have heard of Lillian Wald and Mary Breckenridge but didn't know the full extent of their backgrounds. I enjoyed the history provided in this article and feel that it was a perfect reading to begin my APRN transition. It provided some important information on how the role of the nurse changed and was diminished by ourselves (ANA) before being re-expanded in the 1960s with the role of the NP. I'd love to hear what others think and if you have other interesting historical articles on the background of the APRN role!

This article presents the development of APRN in the recent 20 years. Really a giant step regarding to scope of practice and license issue.

This article provides a brief history of the APRN role and how it has evolved over time. There are many links provided within the article that are intersting to better understand th initial thoughs about APRNs and how the role has changed and evolved over a relatively breif period of time.

This article is a great resource for learning a little more about the history of APRNs. It provides some history about the use of certification exams for licensure.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to provide an organization through which boards of nursing act and counsel together on matters of common interest and concern affecting the public health, safety and welfare, including the development of licensing examinations in nursing. This includes the APRN Consensus movement. This website has multitudes of information related to APRN practice; as we get closer to the F2F classes in October, this will become a more valuabel resource.

Is the transition from RN to APRN that begins during the start of school. How students struggle with balancing academics, life, and other demands. This article shows how nursing faculty can aid and mentor students successfully in their transition into practice.

Is the transition from RN to APRN that begins during the start of school. How students struggle with balancing academics, life, and other demands. This article shows how nursing faculty can aid and mentor students successfully in their transition into practice.

This article discusses the evolution of the WHNP. While I am in the FNP program, I plan to specialize in women's health which is why I picked this article. The conclusion of this article notes that the WHNP is moving to becoming a focus area in a FNP or ANP curriculum (or at least that was the author's opinion in 2009). I have found programs which allow for a specialty in women's and gender-related health care such as the following at Columbia and University of Pennsylvania. (Columbia: http://nursing.columbia.edu/course-list/Womens-Health ; U Penn: http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/whcs/Pages/WHCNPProgram.aspx)

The author figures out the challenges in interdisciplinary teamwork among healthcare providers. These challenges are worth attention if we hope to do well in interdisciplinary teamwork.

This article discusses how interdisciplinary teamwork is experienced at three levels: healthcare professionals, patients, and healthcare organizations.

The points made by the author - reaching decisions collectively, making sure everyone is committed to the same purpose and goal, full participation, understanding the work of other disciplines - can be applied in any type of teamwork setting for successful outcomes. However, with healthcare the author points out that effective teamwork can lead to decreasing health care costs, improved patient safety, and decreasing workload through shared responsibilities. All areas that can allow for better patient care and more efficient use of time and financial resources.

This is a nice synopsis of key moments in history that have triggered the growth and development of the NP role in the US.