Blog Information

• Posted By : cameron epps
• Posted On : Dec 29, 2021
• Views : 98
• Category : Education
• Description : Nurse practitioner is one of the advanced practice roles, which do not only promote care for patients but also ensure their safety. According to the National Patient Safety Goals Effective (2017), nurse practitioner performs clinical roles which include supporting effective communication, managing medication, promoting patient safety, and reducing infection risks among patients. Much attention has been paid to the setting where nurses work and to the roles they have to perform in order to ensure that patients are properly treated. Even though interprofessional collaboration is the most effective means of treatment, nowadays, nurse practitioners spend more time with patients and promote care. The analysis of the roles of nurse practitioners will help understand their input in promoting care and ensuring its effective provision to patients.
• Location : United States

Overview

• John K. Iglehart, a founding editor of Health Affairs journal, argues that with the new financial reform of the healthcare and the requirement to reduce the number of physicians in the hospitals, nurse practitioners become primary healthcare providers. Iglehart (2015) has defined the main purpose of his article as to consider “the potential role that nurse practitioners (NPs) can play in supplementing physician supply, describing trends in the profession and developments related to state laws regulating their scopes of practice” (p. 1). In general, the main role of nurse practitioners is to provide high-quality care and promote complete patient satisfaction while meeting the required standards of quality care. The expert is sure that since the number of physicians is going to decrease and nurses are going to perform most of the tasks the physicians had to, they may expect the independence from physicians. Nurses are not simply the professionals who have graduated from the nursing school and perform the tasks assigned to them. Nurse practitioners in most cases are the holders of master’s degrees or doctorate in nursing. They are aware of the risks and they do all the necessary to protect patients and ensure quality care. Moreover, nurses are responsible for their actions and acknowledgement of this responsibility allows them to ensure top-quality care. The dependency on physicians, whose number is going to be reduced, will only result in the limited effectiveness of care.

  Kutzleb et al. (2015) claim that nurse practitioners are the main participants of the care delivery unit. The authors state that contemporary rapidly changing environment requires fast and considerable change in care delivery to ensure quality. They have developed a nurse practitioner model of care with a patient in its center. Thus, the authors are sure that despite the numerous tasks and responsibilities, nurses should focus on patients. Only this way will they be able to fulfill their role properly. The model of care presented in the research was initially defined as Healthy Heart Initiative, where patients received self-care education and disease management in heart-related issues. Having conducted a research and compared the Healthy Heart Initiative with the heart failure program, the authors have noticed Healthy Heart Initiative resulted in lower return rates and higher literacy of the population in the sphere of personal care (Kutzleb et al., 2015). Nurses should always support patients in their treatment path, but they should educate patients and teach them how to take their medication and perform treatment procedures because only patients are responsible for their recovery.

  Considering the role patient education plays in nursing practice, Walsh, Moore, Barber, and Opsteen (2014) have conducted a research with the purpose to “examine the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) as educators of family medicine residents in order to better understand the interprofessional educational dynamics in a clinical teaching setting” (p. e316). The authors have concluded that there is a lack of international collaboration in the sphere. Nowadays, family members are not motivated by the desire to learn something new about healthcare. They do not see much value in knowledge because they are sure that nurse practitioners have to cope with everything themselves. However, no matter how high the responsibility of a nurse practitioner in improving patients’ condition is, a patient must also assume responsibility for personal health. One more valuable conclusion from this study concerns some prejudiced attitude to nurses in the society (Walsh, Moore, Barber, & Opsteen, 2014). Some patients were sure that physicians were better aware of the situation and could provide better care than nurses did. Still, overall, the research findings have shown a positive attitude to nurse education and considered it as a valuable contribution to patient health and safety.

  In conclusion, nurses work in a rather complicated setting where they have to cope with numerous tasks simultaneously. On the one hand, nurses are depended on physicians and they do not have enough freedom in making own decisions concerning the patients care. On the other hand, nurses are master’s and doctorate degrees holders and they have enough knowledge to make these decisions. In addition, while performing the roles of private care deliverers, nurses have to educate patients and help them self-manage personal care and treatment. However, the problems still exist since some patients do not trust nurses and it prevents the healthcare professionals from performing their roles effectively. The analysis of the articles about the role of nurse practitioners allows concluding that despite the fact that physicians have more power and more knowledge (as defined by the system), nurses have more extended responsibilities and their accountability is higher, which creates some difficulties for them while working in the contemporary environment.
  About the author: Cameron Epps is a master in Literature at Michigan University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at ib extended essay writing service She also studies male psychology.