ROLES OF A NURSE PRACTITIONER
Sabine Dorsainvil NSG5000
South University

The role of a family nurse practitioner is a fundamental portion of the future of healthcare. The role is clearly not as understood by other healthcare professionals as needed which results in the disagreement if the role of a family nurse practitioner is even required for primary care. As people are getting older, the need for medical professionals that can provide patient care to our ever growing population increases. The need for the role of family nurse practitioners will grow too. The role of the family nurse practitioner, the ability of the FNP to be able to transition into their role.
The scope of the nursing role has transcended overtime to allow for registered nurses to practice in more advanced autonomous roles. The first Nurse Practitioner program was initiated at the University of Colorado in the 1970’s as professors sought the need to prepare nurses for expanded roles as it was evident the capacity of nurse’s ability to assess and determine the necessary treatment options for children and families. (Jansen, Zwygart-Stauffacher, 2009) While the definition of the advanced practice nurse role continues to evolve, the construct of the role is birthing a growing population of nurse leaders and expanding the framework of nursing care delivery. A family nurse practitioner must have graduated from a graduate program obtaining a Master’s degree or higher and receive certification from the certifying body for advance practice registered nurses.
There are a lot of factors that have led to the recent need for nurse practitioners. Some of these factors include an increase in the need for provision of care to improve access, the availability of doctors, cost issues, and a nurse’s skills and expertise. Most of the time, the nurse practitioners are on the front line in general practice offices and in the emergency departments. The nurse practitioners have the ability to do some of the same things that the doctors can do, so they make a great substitute for doctors when they are busy with other patients. The best way that the nurse practitioner will be able to help the patients is to manage the patients who might have an acute illness. Since the nurse practitioners will need to be able to diagnosis and treat these illnesses, they are going to need more training than some of the other nurses would.
The Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) is an advanced practice nurse with specialized knowledge in family focused health care. The FNP is responsible for patient care delivery throughout the lifespan which includes diagnosing, prescribing and examination responsibilities. As the healthcare field has taken on more collaborative and integrative initiatives, the need for the advanced practicing nurses has grown in demand in efforts to offer more timely, efficient, and optimal patient care.
"To continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value” (Jointcommission.org, 2015). These requirements are regimented in the National Patient Safety Goals and are enforced via surveys and internal inspections to ensure that healthcare institutions abide by the safety mechanisms put in place to facilitate the optimal patient outcomes and environments. With patient safety as a primary priority, state legislatures have mandates on their board of nursing agencies that regulates the requirements necessary for APN’s which involves a second level licensure process and or title protections laws which delineate specific parameters concerning the scope of practice for the APN under the National Council of State Boards of Nursing legislature.( Jansen, Zwygart-Stauffacher, 2009) The curriculum of South University’s MSN degree program seeks to prepare registered nurses for the aforementioned licensure and or title protections to comply with standards established by the healthcare governing bodies.
The role of the Nurse Practitioner envelopes several roles which includes “deans, educators, policy experts and as aforementioned, clinicians” ( Jansen, Zwygart-Stauffacher,2009) Though Nurse Practitioners are growing in numbers as leaders in the healthcare profession, according to Poghosyan, L., Boyd, D., & Knutson, A. R. (2014) some opponents of the APN role that advocate physician led patient centered care argue that “higher personnel cost has higher returns with improved patient outcomes and less complications”. Therefore, it is necessary to further define the role of the APN to continue the development of the scope pf the APN and use research data such as clinic volumes, performance measures, cost effectiveness and client outcomes to justify the autonomy of the NP.
In conclusion, the role of the nurse practitioner will continue to be refined as it evolves in its framework. The artful blend of a registered nurse with the autonomy of a physician will continue to create a gray paradigm in the field of practice as both roles intertwined is not unanimously accepted.

References

Jansen, M. P., & Zwygart-Stauffacher, M. (2009). Advanced practice nursing. NYC: Springer

Poghosyan, L., Boyd, D., & Knutson, A.R. (2014). Nurse practitioner role, independent practice, and teamwork in primary care. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 10(7), 472-479. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2014.05.009