Advanced Practice Nurse

Improving the quality of discharge planning in acute care include addressing the lack of appropriate staff and patient education about appropriate planning for discharge (4). This includes implementing proper discharge teaching regarding signs and symptoms to seek medical attention, management and care of medical equipment, and access to community resources (4, 5). Other challenges are patients with complex comorbidities too difficult to discharge as well as lack of community supports and equipment for newly discharge patients and lack of rehabilitation and nursing home beds (4). Consequently, acute care units are pressured to vacate hospital beds in response to the growing elderly population. Hospital professionals tend to focus discharge teaching and preparation on medical areas such as diet, activity, treatments, and medications (5). Community referrals to appropriate services at the time of hospital discharge does not often happen contributing to poorer patient outcomes and re-hospitalizations

Discharge planning is used to create a plan of care for a patient who is leaving a care setting. An evaluation is done to determine the patient’s continuing care needs once they have left the care facility. When patients are send back home or to a facility that does not require full time nursing care assistance, programs need to be put into place to ensure that the patient is receiving the proper continuation of care post discharge. Proper discharge planning can decrease the chances of a hospital readmit, help in recovery, ensure medications are prescribed and given correctly, and adequately prepare family or caregivers to assume proper post discharge care. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, “It is important, not only for patients, but family

While uncertainty about the role of an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) persists, what research has found about the role is that AG-ACNP’s provide advanced nursing care to those who are acutely, critically or chronically ill in both traditional and nontraditional healthcare settings (Kleinpell et al., 2012). Standard of scope differs between all types of scopes and nurse practitioners alike. The scope of practice (SOP) for an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (ACNP) is not based on practice setting, but rather what type of care the patient will need, for example, someone who needs ventilator management in either the home or hospital environment (Kleinpell et al., 2012).

Ineffective discharge teaching often leads to unnecessary admissions to the hospital resulting in negative patient outcomes and decreased patient satisfaction. This negatively impacts the well-being of the patient and creates a financial burden on institutions. As a result, this universal practice issue requires a call to action on the part of the nursing profession. Nurses can proactively assist in assuring incidents of readmission do not occur. Nurses as educators play a critical role in the successful transition of patients from hospital to home. The overall goal of discharge education is to ensure there is an exchange of critical information between the patient and nurse in which plans of care are understood and followed. The research

Slutsky, J. (2005). Using evidence-based guidelines: Tools for improving practice. In B. F.-O. Melnyk, Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare. A guide to best practice (pp. 221-236). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2015) the traditional roles of the advanced practice nurses include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives and nurse anesthetists. Therefore, the impact of the research on the practice of the preparation of DNP nurse educator requires education in evidence-based practice, quality improvement, leadership, policy advocacy, informatics, and systems theory. Furthermore, transitioning to the DNP as a nurse educator does not change the current scope of practice of the Advance Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) for their current roles. The transition of the DNP better prepares APRNs by utilizing new models of the care delivery system and growing complexity of health

Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) is a broad term that is used to define the masters prepared nurse that participates directly in patient care. This definition includes four different facets of nursing: certified nurse-midwives, nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners (Joel, 2009). Of these four professions that are included in the APRN definition, Western Carolina University offers two: nurse anesthetist and nurse practitioner. Nurse educator and nurse leader, which are also offered at Western Carolina University, are not currently included in this definition.

Cooke, Gemmill, & Grant (2008) discuss Hamric’s Model of Advanced Nursing Practice and APN’s role as “intervention nurses” and provide several case studies demonstrating APN’s role. Case studies focus on oncology patient’s but demonstrate importance of APA in discharge care of patient’s across all spectrums.

As the young and rapidly-aging population continues to increase, the demands of primary, acute and chronic disease management will also increase. As a result, more health care professionals who provide primary care will be needed to meet these demands. Thus, the emergence of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) evolve. APRN is a nurse who has completed a graduate degree and has acquired advanced knowledge and skills. APRNs are grounded with theory, concepts and principles that enable them to assess, diagnose, treat and manage their patients. APRNs can work in conjunction with other health care professionals or independently. APRNs improve access to health care by providing care in the rural and underserved areas. APRNs also reduce the cost to health care (Joel, 2013).

Post-discharge follow-up visit remains a critical factor in ensuring that patients continue to do well after they leave the hospital. The success of the team was measured based on data collected after 6 months of revamping the discharge clinic and implementing a phone call system to patients. They had been given a choice of a phone call for discharge follow up or to come in within 7-14 days and be evaluated post discharge.

Over the last six weeks we learnt a lot in this course. We learnt that advanced practice nursing has evolved over the years to become recognized today as an important and growing trend among healthcare systems worldwide. Different advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) roles were identified such as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, or nurse midwives who all play a pivotal role based on different set of clinical skills and knowledge to impact in the future of health care. The educational qualifications of APRNs role must be at least up to the graduate level. Other RN specialty identified included; nurse educator, nurse informaticist, nurse administrator, nurse executive, nurse manager, and clinical nurse leader. Learning the evolution of APN helped me understand where the practice started and where it is heading.

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), have a master’s degree or higher, advanced practice training and a certification in their specialty of advanced practice roles (Yeewan, 2015). The roles of a APRNs consist of certified nurse-midwife (CNM), certified nurse practitioner (NP), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), and certified clinical nurse specialist (CNS) (Yeewan, 2015).

Advanced practice nurses in Australia, much like other places around the world, were initially trained in a specific clinical setting, such as nurse anaesthetist, nurse midwife or clinical nurse specialist, due to an identified need, which determined their roles (Jansen & Zwygart-Stauffacher, 2010). However, as the need for these roles have become more varied, for example wound care nurse, breast care nurse or diabetic educator, the specific core roles have increased, while becoming more defined within each individual clinical setting (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy & O’Grady, 2014). There is a common theme regarding the core functions of an advance practice nurse, these include professional leadership and development, expert practice, consultancy,

My most recent area of practice was on an observation department at Baptist Hospital of Miami. This unit is fast paced and to the lay person appears to be controlled chaos. As a result, the focus seems to be efficient task completion in a short time frame. An indirect result of this focus has reduced the amount of communication with patients and family as they await feedback and updates while they wait. Congruently, I’ve recognized the amount of call light usage questions and concerns from patients and their families throughout their stay. This concern has to lead my topic of focus and area of research for this microsystem assessment. I would love to remain in the future as an advanced practice nurse within this facility.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a nurse practitioner (NP) within a specific context of identify the organization, clients and the professional role that fit Advanced Adult-Gerontology Primary Care- (AGPCNP). Therefore, focuses on roles and opportunities for NPs in the community health setting it is important because NPs can provide primary care to