Essentials in Nurse Practitioner Programs
Nurses play an especially important role in healthcare delivery. Nowadays, the healthcare system is characterized by “explosion of knowledge, expanding technologies, increasing diversity, and global health challenges” (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014, p. 3). Therefore, the current situation produced a necessity for high-quality education, which includes different aspects of nursing practices. Essentials of education in nursing described all essential knowledge and skills which a nurse should obtain during education to be prepared for participating in nurse practitioner programs, in particular in Family Nursing Unit (FNU) program.
The particularity of the FNU program is that it is focused on whole family health and wellbeing, in contradiction to traditional individual-focused programs. Family nurse practitioners are responsible for medical care and health delivery to all family members of all ages, genders, health states, and life stages, including children and elderly people (Nurse Journal, 2017). Therefore, they required all novel knowledge and diverse practical skills, described in all nine Essentials, to provide high-quality and comprehensive care.
In particular, the Essential III: Quality Improvement and Safety (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014, p. 13) is highly important for family nurse practitioners. This Essential includes skills and knowledge which are needed to increase safety and quality of nursing health care delivery, based on occurred cases and current trends analysis, safe healthcare models introduction, communication skills development, and current health care quality improvement (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014). The question of safety is important for nurses who work with children and elderly people who are more vulnerable and sensitive to possible errors (Rees et al., 2015).
In particular, analysis of occurred accidents might help to avoid mistakes in future nurses work. Introduction the practice of existed efficient models and quality of healthcare delivery improvement is important for nurses’ professional development. It means that a nurse should learn more from existing effective models and improve his or her methods of health care delivery to different family members, based on the other nurses’ experience. Finally, communication skills development is essential for connection building. People of different ages, gender, and life stages require different communication styles, and a nurse should find an appropriate approach to all of them to provide high-quality health care.
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of science is highly important for nursing practice. First, scientific methods of investigation allow obtaining objective data according to a particular nursing problem. Therefore it is important for nurse participants to have access to results of investigations (Parahoo, 2014). Second, during education, it is important for nurses to obtain knowledge from nursing and related science and to build a connection between different branches of science.
The range of essential for a qualified nurse-systems of knowledge is wide. Except for nursing science, an advanced nurse should know and use data from medical sciences, genomic, genetic, biochemistry, pharmacology, epidemiology, psychology, bioethics, as well as non-related to biology and medicine subjects such as informational technologies, the economics of healthcare delivery, leadership sciences, and others (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014). Synthesis of all these knowledge systems is a basis for nurse work.
It is important to mention that the philosophy of science has primarily practical value. In particular, informational technologies science provides information about currently existing new technological approaches; for example, an electronic health recorder that might be useful in nursing practice and improve the quality and safety of workers. Psychological and psychiatric knowledge allows finding an appropriate communication style with different kinds of patients, including children, elderly people, and people with mental disorders.
Understanding of pharmacology is important to avoid possible mistakes connected with medication. It is important to know what drugs can or cannot be used together, what special conditions are required for particular medications use. Finally, the synthesis of medical knowledge is used daily in nursing practice to evaluate a patients’ state, provide preliminary diagnosis, and deliver primary qualified health care.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2014). The essentials of master’s education in nursing. Web.
Nurse Journal. (2017). Role & scope of practice of a family nurse practitioner. Web.
Parahoo, K. (2014). Nursing research: Principles, process and issues. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rees, P., Edwards, A., Panesar, S., Powell, C., Carter, B., Williams, H.,… Avery, A. (2015). Safety incidents in the primary care office setting. Pediatrics, 135(6), 1027-1035.