Introduction
It should be noted that both the direct and indirect care should be based on the obtained baccalaureate degree in nursing. It would ensure that the care specialists are prepared to perform in a multiplicity of roles in the varied healthcare setting and furnish the best of service. The nurses that provide direct care are to attain a graduate-level degree. It implies that their education involves being trained by a nurse educator. Thus, they will be able to get advanced knowledge (Landsperger, Semler, Wang, Byrne, & Wheeler, 2016).
The same rule is applied to those nurses that will be furnishing indirect care. In addition, the two roles require specialists to be a registered nurse. Other than that, it means that the nurse will be able to execute leadership. It is worth mentioning that the indirect practice role will be pointless without the direct one due to the fact that there will be no need for the supporting function proposed by the indirect practice.
On the reverse, if there was no indirect advanced practice part, the direct roles would be impossible since they would not get access to the data, training, and IT. Nevertheless, it should be stated that the two domains are different both in scope and in the process of care provision.
Analysis
The core competencies of a direct care provider advanced role and indirect care provider advanced role are rather different in their nature. They are defined by the state guidelines and cannot be mixed or interchanged. The direct care practice role is connected to the hands-on care of the patients and is opposed to the role of indirect practitioners (Landsperger et al., 2016). One of the differences is that the scope of practice of direct care providers implies that the specialists are able to furnish care and perform administrative and managerial functions. Potentially, such specialists can be involved in education or informatics as well. Meanwhile, the indirect practice roles are potentially broad in scope.
Another difference in the competences is that indirect practitioners cannot perform the same functions as the direct carers do; thus, it is not possible that they are involved in furnishing direct care to patients (Newhouse et al., 2011). Their scope of practice is limited in that matter, and they are not permitted to furnish evidence-based practice. It means that, though indirect health care providers are competent to function in the same clinical setting with the direct practitioners, they are not allowed to be involved in the same activities.
Therefore, the core competencies of an indirect care provider’s advanced role do not include conducting the patient evaluation, setting the diagnosis, and enacting medication while these are the roles assigned to the NPs (Newhouse et al., 2011). Needless to say that also the two roles set different safety risks. In the case of direct practitioners, the degree of safety risk is much higher than that of indirect specialists since the latter ones are not engaged in furnishing the hands-on care to patients.
It should be noted that indirect care advanced practice roles are essential for direct practitioners to be able to function. Consequently, the core competences of such specialists are connected to teaching and playing an instrumental role in the health care setting (Landsperger et al., 2016).
To be more precise, such positions as nurse administrators imply that despite the fact that they can function in the clinical setting, their major competencies are linked to management, planning, accounting, and other administrative areas (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2015). In addition, they are responsible for financial management, oversight of the personnel, and coordination of the setting. Whereas nurse informaticists are responsible for integrating the data and expertise with the administration of IT to ensure a functional attitude towards the health care environment (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2015).
More specifically, the competences of nurse informaticists are to collect the data, to interpret the medical information from hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and nursing homes (Troseth, 2012). While nurse practitioners can work in most of the areas of medical practice. That is to say, they can diagnose and treat patients and prescribe medication in their chosen field meanwhile having the capability to turn into nurse educators.
Conclusion
The scope of nursing practice has been altering throughout the history of its emergence and development; it is different in the cases of direct care providers advanced role, and indirect care providers advanced role. Despite the existing dissimilarities in the core competencies and safety risks, the two domains require more autonomous work and roles that the nurses need to take. At present, the health care providers operating on the advanced level have to be knowledgeable about the requirements that are applied to them by the state and, in general, they need to furnish care that is more complex (bearing in mind that the direct practitioners can be engaged in informatics, education and so on).
References
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2015). Nurse executive competencies. Web.
Landsperger, J., Semler, M., Wang, L., Byrne, D., & Wheeler, A. (2016) Outcomes of nurse practitioner-delivered critical care. Chest, 149(5), 1146-1154.
Newhouse, R., Stanik-Hutt, J., White, K., Johantgen, M., Bass, E., Zangaro, G.,…Weiner, J. (2011). Advanced practice nurse outcomes 1990-2008: A systematic review. Nursing Economics, 29, 230-250.
Troseth, M. (2012). Nursing informatics. Web.