Advanced Nursing Practice and Its Role in Nursing Profession Research Paper

Advanced Practice Roles in Nursing

The starting point of all current-day nursing practices is a registered nurse. The current standards and policies with respect to education and legal regulations for attaining a basic first-level nursing standard weren't always fixed. For that matter, there weren't always professional nurses, either.

Specialist nurses can be considered as the primary product of nursing's professional evolution. The basis of the advanced nurses of today was established in the advent of specialist nurses in America. They were recognized in practice from the latter part of the 19th century; in the 1930s-1940s, the number of specialist nurses in USA grew. Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) have become strongly recognized in the field of nursing since the 1960s. The Clinical activities of these nurse specialists were usually considered to be within conventional nursing practice domains, though their expertise was normally extended. Thus, CNSs were not considered to pose any particular threat to the conventional, broader healthcare system's arrangement. More recently, CNSs are intimately and commonly linked with advanced nursing concepts; this relates to the significant growth of advanced nursing (Development of Advanced Nursing Roles, 2012).

Contrary to the relatively extended evolution of specialist nurses, research scholars initiated the role and/or concept of nurse practitioner in pace with the initiation of a new pediatric primary healthcare role in 1965, in the United States (U.S.). The role was set up based upon specialist nurses' extensive functional capabilities; however, it also included conventional therapeutic diagnostic skills. It is stated by researchers that the necessity for this change arose from practical issues as well as social concerns of the present age, such as insufficiency of pediatricians. Initially, it is likely that there may have been some disquiet concerning the potential repercussions of transcending former professional limits on nursing practice's potential scope. This was predominantly significant in an era when more autonomy as well as distance from medical authority's long-established dominance was achieved by nurses (Development of Advanced Nursing Roles, 2012).

Many other important professional improvements in the 1990s and the early part of the previous decade led to future advanced nursing; this includes the institution of consultant nurses by the government (Development of Advanced Nursing Roles, 2012) as well as the introduction of legislation for non-medical prescriptions. Growth in the 1990's also contributed in different and significant ways to the development of advanced nursing (Development of Advanced Nursing Roles, 2012).

Role of Nursing Practitioners (NPs) in Advanced Nursing Practice

What is a Nurse Practitioner? One set of definitions describes the NP as a particular type of registered nurse who performs 'advanced practice'. Generally speaking, NPs are highly educated, with at least a bachelor's degree as well as their registered nurse license. Furthermore, the NP has clinical experience and additional education, depending upon the particular state where the NP chooses to practice. The functional role of the NP is fairly analogous to that of a physician, generally including the ability to prescribe pharmaceuticals and order laboratory tests as needed.

Studies indicate that NPs as well as other healthcare providers are trained for, and deliver, several primary care functions. Thus, they may be capable of facilitating increased accessibility to primary healthcare, especially in under-served localities. The term Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) is used to denote those nurses who, by way of graduate-level educational qualifications, have acquired advanced clinical skills and knowledge enabling provision of direct medical care to patients. Training is provided to APRNs through graduate and postgraduate courses in pharmacology, advanced health evaluation, physiology and other sub-disciplines of medicine.

NPs can be considered to be the largest cluster of APRNs. They practice in various areas of population focus, including family practice, women's health, geriatrics, and pediatrics. NPs constitute the most commonly-found non-physician suppliers of primary health care. They offer comprehensive services that include disease prevention, counseling, and health promotion. National licensing boards dictate the total range of services that can be performed by NPs, such as hospital admissions, prescribing of drugs, and diagnosis of patient ailments. Individual hospitals and Medicaid agencies can further enhance activities permitted for NPs. Half of the states in the U.S. allow NPs to carry out their practice independent of supervising physicians to a large extent. This includes diagnosis, treatment, referring patients (though not essentially prescribing except for medications); in some instances, significant limitations are imposed on the scope of the services that NP are allowed to provide. The laws for NP licensure, as well as regulations and certifications pertaining to the practicing limits of NPs differ widely by state; they are often not as broad or extensive as the APRN training (Schiff, 2010).

Role of Nurse Educators in Advanced Nursing Practice

Some features of efficient clinical training include particular traits such as ability to behave and/or act impersonally; enjoy clinical training, ability to utilize metacognition, and being exemplar and supportive. Important personal characteristics include liking for the profession of nursing, reflective thinking, and empathy. Prized metacognition traits include knowledge of curriculum and clinical environment. Clinical learning could be made enjoyable by putting theory to practice and application of clinical reasoning, in addition to adopting a patient-centered clinical training approach. Clinical educators are regarded as support providers, particularly when utilizing professional and interpersonal competencies, as well as when forging relationships with staff and students in the clinical background. The traits of being role models comprise unity of actions and words, and clinical competency. The authors defined a professional approach to nursing education as being the central foundation of their research (Dahlke et al., 2012).

Role of Nurse Informaticist in Advanced Nursing Practice

Nursing informatics arose over the last two decades to help nurses in fully employing information technology for improving healthcare delivery (TIGER Informatics Competencies Collaborative, 2007). Nursing informatics refers to a specialty that integrates information science, computer science, and nursing science to communicate and manage data, knowledge, and information in nursing. The basis of this specialty is knowledge, data, and information concepts. Data denotes discrete observations that are structured, interpreted, or organized. Information, on the other hand, is data that has already been structured, interpreted, or organized to give meaning to data, such as, age, weight, disease, blood pressure, and frequency of home calls, among others. The purpose and potential of nursing practice is supporting and improving individual and community healthcare by collecting, managing and communicating information regarding, as well as for, patients. Nursing informatics could help make the part played by nursing noticeable in medical records, and help nurses by delivering tools for decision support (Daniel & Oyetunde, 2013).

Nursing informatics' goal is improving the health of individuals, families, communities and populations, by optimization of information, communication and management. This comprises using technology and information in direct healthcare provision, in establishment of efficient administrative systems, in delivery and management of educational experiences, in advocating nursing research and in lifelong learning support (Daniel & Oyetunde, 2013).

Role of Nurse Administrator in Advanced Nursing Practice

International literature gives supportive proof that healthcare services profit when utilizing recognized nurse executives in the leadership structure for governance of professional nursing. Benefits to medical organizations are directly realized by means of higher healthcare quality and standards, with better health, positive consumer experience, and outcomes. Being the largest workforce in healthcare, midwives and nurses have a considerable impact on healthcare service productivity optimization, and efficient outcomes in patient health. Executive nurses supervise and lead the nursing personnel through professional-level governance standards for delivering healthcare and quality of experience expected by the public. Nurse executives can create a forceful vision for specialized midwifery and nursing practice by way of organizational and workforce development, business planning and strategic thinking to deliver safe, reliable healthcare to attain service revolution through engaging with the midwifery and nursing workforce. More generally, executive nurses are capable of creating and leading clinical practice and influencing the level of excellence and innovation at each healthcare organization stage (Hughes, 2013).

Nurse executives contribute significantly to ensure that a professional leader with evident authority is present, who can be accessed and can play the role of a supporter for midwives and nurses at the board and executive levels of a healthcare service organization. They can balance the executive unit, as also the decision-making of the board between provisions of cohesive consumer healthcare; they can also deliver primary health service goals of planning for resource investment and financial integrity. Additionally, nurse executives are capable of driving an approach that is system-wide in supporting consumer healthcare. This occurs through strategic monitoring and maintenance of more effective and efficient midwifery and nursing care concurrently with aiding the growth and application of organizational plans for achieving key targets of service performance (Hughes, 2013).

Individual Advanced Practice Role

Regulatory and legal requirements for practicing nursing in New Jersey

New Jersey State's legal conditions for carrying out nursing practices are as follows: The practitioner should have a minimum age of 18 years, with good morals, and should possess evidence of latest Registered Nurse (RN) license in good standing. The nurse should be registered as a professional nurse, after successfully…