Introduction
This paper will describe the advanced practice nursing role as offered by South University. The facility offers several different programs, with the Family Nurse Practitioner track being the most relevant to this essay. The role can significantly improve patient outcomes by ensuring that people get access to care and relevant health education. Scientific evidence of the positive influence is available and will be discussed in this paper. The essay will also provide a conceptual framework that applies to advanced practice nursing and family nurse practitioners, in particular. Overall, it will identify family practice as an essential component of modern healthcare that helps many varieties of patients achieve excellent outcomes.
Clinical or Non-Clinical Role
Family nursing practice has a more extensive history than the general concept of advanced practice nursing. According to Keeling, Hehman, and Kirchgessner (2018), the first master’s program that explicitly described comprehensive family nursing was created by the Frontier Nursing Service Graduate School of Midwifery in 1970. Since then, the role has expanded and been incorporated in the broader context of advanced practice nursing as a possible career path.
The role’s power to help disadvantaged communities is a significant motivator for the selection, as it helps establish equity in healthcare. It was initially intended to help rural Native American communities, but it may be expanded to other groups with low access to medical services.
Family practice nursing is a clinical role, and members of the track will often be working in ambulatory practices such as community clinics or private offices. Not all states allow them to work independently or have prescriptive authority, but the situation is slowly improving. Creedon, Byrne, Sketris, Kennedy, and McCarthy (2016) conclude via a phenomenology research study with a sample of 8 workers that nurse practitioners are responsible users of prescriptive authority and can improve the quality of care.
However, it should be noted that not all advanced practice nursing programs are of the same quality, a consideration that contributes to some states’ concerns. With regards to disadvantaged communities, Orchard and Mahler (2018) discover in a cross sectional evaluation of 180 people that nurse practitioners can improve access to care and outcomes for low-income groups. As such, the role’s current iteration is effective at its tasks and can play a significant role in improving overall outcomes.
Conceptual Nursing Model
Family nurse practitioners must work closely with the community and the surroundings of the patient to achieve their goals. As such, education, communication, and cultural competency are essential traits for the role. Family nurse practitioners work to overcome the barriers that prevent people from accessing quality care, such as finances, distrust, or long distances. They introduce subtle changes to determine their influence and consequences, gradually improving the community’s situation. As such, the awareness of the social, cultural, political, and economic contexts is essential for a practitioner to succeed. By influencing the overall situation and promotion the adoption of socially just policy, family nurse practitioners try to improve health outcomes for all community members.
While they do a considerable amount of social work, FNPs remain clinical professionals with high levels of medical competence. They provide quality care to patients at a higher standard than a regular registered nurse. To maintain his or her expertise, a family nurse practitioner must adhere to the fundamental concepts of evidence-based practice. Nursing and healthcare, in general, are constantly being improved through the introduction of new, advanced methods. A professional should be aware of the latest developments and participate in their creation and testing. Through active efforts to discover and test new ways of helping the community, one can achieve significant positive change.
Interview Preparation and Conclusion
Family nursing practice is nearly 50 years old, as it was first established as a role in 1970 to help disadvantaged Native American communities. Members of the position are competent and can achieve considerable improvements in safety and access to care, especially if given independent practice and prescription authority. Awareness of social, political, cultural, and economic environmental factors is essential to a member of the profession due to its goal of achieving social justice. However, family nurse practitioners remain competent care providers who employ evidence-based practice and continuously improve their skills. The next paper will be the results of an interview with Sarah Kessler, a Family Nurse Practitioner who is currently employed at that capacity at a community clinic, on June 23rd.
References
Creedon, R., Byrne, S., Sketris, I., Kennedy, J., & McCarthy, S. (2016). Nova Scotia nurse practitioners understanding of inappropriate prescribing and using a prescribing evaluation tool: A pilot study. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(4), 21-31.
Keeling, A. W., Hehman, M. C., & Kirchgessner, J. C. (Eds.) (2018). History of professional nursing in the United States: Toward a culture of health. New York, NY: Springer.
Orchard, C. A., & Mahler, C. (2018). The association of nurse practitioner roles and practice on perceived health of residents living within subsidized housing units. Nursing and Family Health Care, 1(1), 1-9.