Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners

Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper The Role of the Family Nurse Practitioner Essay It is no secret that the current healthcare reformation is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify a way to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Nurse practitioners (NPs) can have a profound and positive impact on communities through patient advocacy and exceptional service delivery. As front-line witnesses to countless patient experiences, nurse practitioners can improve public well-being through legislative activism. To accomplish this, nurses must gain skill in an unfamiliar forum — the political arena. Permalink: https://nursingpaperessays.com/ 2152 / ? NPs know firsthand the many issues that affect patient outcomes. These same experiences influence many nurse practitioners to make a plea for change before political figures. Initial forays into politics may feel irregular to full-time care providers. However, nurse practitioners can prepare for patient advocacy by observing the following strategies. Participation in Community Assessments Government officials review community assessments to establish public health policies. [1] This data guides officials as to where, when and how resources are to be allocated. Local government leaders rely on health care professionals to provide relevant community health information. By participating in community assessments, nurse practitioners can help ensure that officials gather relevant and accurate information. This information may include factors such as:Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper -Population age distributions -Community health conditions -Economic obstacles -Employment statistics -Ethnic group populations -Health care service performance levels -Housing conditions Government officials gather and use this information cyclically to maintain continual community well-being. Civic Interest Group Formation Nurse practitioners play a vital role in community mentorship and networking. [2] By establishing joint commissions and special interest groups, NPs can facilitate ongoing community partnerships to manage current health issues. These activities allow NPs to establish community initiatives that continually foster caregiver talent within a given locale.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper As community leaders, nurse practitioners can play critical roles in establishing initiatives that promote local public health, and assist in shaping an environment that responds to citizens’ needs. This supportive guidance helps provide citizens with outlets to manage ever-evolving local health matters. Advocacy for Cost-effective Treatments and Medications Care providers and patients currently face many changes that have heightened concerns over medical expenses. [3] Many stakeholders invested in the health care field affect change through legislation. The difficulty of this process is apparent, because outcomes can increasingly affect any given party over another equally involved party. Legislators must review evidence and make decisions that best serve the public’s interest. Therefore, it is critical that nurse practitioners learn to voice the needs of community patrons’ through the legislative process.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Maintaining Rapport With Academic Influencers By continually educating administrators, students and parents about community wellness issues, nurse practitioners can establish rapport that allows them to advocate for student health. This ongoing relationship enables NPs to monitor and advocate for concerns such as ensuring sufficient nurse staffing levels in schools. Many U.S. school nurses oversee a woefully disproportionate number of students, with some districts requiring care providers to supervise multiple school facilities. By maintaining an ongoing rapport with individuals who influence academic decision-making, NPs can advocate for patients’ needs (i.e., student’s needs) as required. Additionally, nurse practitioners can present these concerns to legislative officials in a meaningful context by providing empirical data generated from local health information. Involvement With Established Local Organizations Great competition exists among organizations rallying for general funding. [4] Nurse practitioners can stay abreast of current community issues to understand and advocate for programs that best serve the medical needs of the local population. This competitive funding climate can encourage NPs to maximize their role as a community health care professional.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Nurse practitioners can build relationships that allow them to identify key public health resources, services and issues. Therefore, a well-versed understanding of all local civic interests helps NPs advocate effectively for initiatives that will improve community health outcomes. Active Involvement in Health Care Legislation Establishing a rapport with legislative professionals represents another strategy that nurse practitioners can employ to boost their community advocacy. A professional relationship with influential local officials provides a conduit for presenting important public welfare issues.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Through political affiliations, NPs can advance public wellness agendas by presenting governmental decision-makers with relevant and timely information. When serving in this capacity, nurse practitioners provide officials with logical, concise, factual and verified reports. During these presentations, NPs approach the meeting cordially, with the intention of producing a win-win outcome or finding a feasible middle ground. Nurse practitioners can exercise this approach throughout the many facets of the legislative process. Ongoing Public Education NPs can maintain community relations by providing ongoing wellness education. [5] This exposure helps build the reputation of practitioners as health care experts; promoting an ongoing, two-way dialogue that includes local residents and <ahref=”http://onlinenursing.regiscollege.edu/resources/msn/articles/what-does-an-adult-geriatric-nurse-practitioner-do/”community health concerns. This reciprocal relationship heightens the community’s involvement in its health care future and brings together practitioners and patients. Additionally, patients who are familiar with NPs as public health educators are more likely to openly express issues during their regular office visits. Working collaboratively with NP’s also makes patients more likely to support initiatives that are presented by their local community wellness advocate.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper During service delivery, nurse practitioners receive firsthand exposure to society’s most pressing health issues. This experience, combined with training, allows NPs to serve as highly informed community health advocates. In a setting ripe with legislative maneuvering, community leadership and political health activism are skills that can greatly heighten the impact of contemporary nurse practitioners. They stress both care and cure while being the more cost effective option. Studies have shown that using Nurse Practitioners results in a quality of care equivalent to physicians with high patient satisfaction rates. Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Background Nurse Practitioners are a relatively new concept within the American healthcare system. The first Nurse Practitioners were educated in 1965, the same year that Medicaid was established, in response to a nationwide shortage of physicians. Loretta Ford, RN and Dr. Henry Silver introduced the first informal training program for Nurse Practitioners at the University of Colorado. This model was not well received by some nursing leaders or physicians (Mundinger, 1994). Certain nursing leaders believed that nurses were no longer practicing nursing and the title of Nurse Practitioner was misleading. Medical physicians opposed the concept of nurses functioning as an expanded role under the direction of a physician. Facing these challenges and oppositions, Nurse Practitioners began their journey to define and legitimize their profession (O’Brian, 2003). With the growing complexity of health care and diminishing availability of primary care physicians, many patients are seeing family nurse practitioners for their primary care needs.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Nurse practitioners help patients manage acute and chronic illnesses. They conduct physical exams and perform diagnostic tests and procedures. Nurse practitioners in the family practice specialty diagnose and treat patients from childhood to adulthood. “Family nurse practitioners have a long history of engaging patients in their care, helping them to understand their illness and practical measures they can take for improvements,” says Mary Jo Goolsby, EdD, MSN, NP-C, CAE, FAANP director of research & education for the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. “The family nurse practitioner role is becoming more dominant in that almost half of all nurse practitioners are now family nurse practitioners and this role does afford great flexibility since a family nurse practitioner can care for patients across the age span.”Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper The role of nurse practitioner was developed in the early 1960s. Since that time, it has changed from an assistant role to one of meeting people’s healthcare needs when a primary care physician is not available. The roles of nurse practitioner and physician assistant are evolving alongside that of physicians, with expanding opportunities in specialty medicine being a dominant trend affecting health professions.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Scope of Responsibilities Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have an advanced training. With the exception of surgery, nurse practitioners are allowed under state regulations to provide many of the same services performed by physicians. These services include diagnosing and treating health problems; performing prenatal, well-child, and adult care checkups; diagnosing and managing minor trauma, including suturing and splinting; prescribing medications; and teaching health promotion and disease prevention to patients. Family nurse practitioners have a long history of engaging patients in their care, helping them to understand their illness and practical measures they can take for improvements.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper “It is the expectation of family nurse practitioners to diagnose, treat, and prescribe in all 50 states. The scope may alter state to state as to what can be prescribed and services offered,” says David G. O’Dell, DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC, graduate Nursingprogram director at South University, West Palm Beach. “In many states, a nurse practitioner can prescribe all medications, including controlled substances. In some states, they are not allowed to prescribe controlled substances at all.” Nurse practitioners’ scope of practice and ability to work independently varies widely across the country. Many nurse practitioner lobbying activities on the state level have focused on achieving professional autonomy, without physician supervision. The long-standing debate over independent nursing practice has been highly controversial, but has started to heat up again because of the growing demand for medical services by aging baby boomers and people who will be newly insured through healthcare reform.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper The heavier patient load, along with an anticipated shortage of primary care doctors, has put the spotlight on how nurse practitioners and physician assistants can fill primary care needs. Nurse practitioners have responded by saying that while they do not claim to be able to replace physicians, they can provide high-quality, cost-effective care. “From our nursing background, nurse practitioners bring a patient-centered approach to their care and the outcomes are excellent,” Goolsby states. She adds that nurse practitioners are part of the healthcare team either on a local or broader scale.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper “The state regulatory environment is gradually changing so that nurse practitioners are more likely to have ‘plenary’ authority, meaning that there are no regulatory requirements that we collaborate in a team environment,” Goolsby says. “But just as physicians are part of the overall healthcare team, so are nurse practitioners.”Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Collaborative Care Family nurse practitioners approach patients with an understanding of the value of collaborative, family-centered care. “From the family nurse practitioner perspective, the family is the patient so individuals are treated within the context of their family,” O’Dell says. In addition to the focus on family dynamics, nurse practitioners have referral and consultative relationships with other healthcare providers, such as physicians, pharmacists, and psychologists. Effective collaboration has proven to promote better communication, healthcare management, and positive health outcomes.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper “Nurse practitioners are taught to collaborate with other healthcare providers to help patient health,” O’Dell says. “Historically, you look at the family doctor as being by himself and making house calls,” he adds. “That is history. Now, it is all about teamwork. It is just a given. Therefore, when someone asks, ‘who is the captain?’ We say, ‘it takes a team Nurse Practitioners as Primary Care Providers Every individual in the world deserves to enjoy health and wellness. Maintaining or achieving proper health needs enables individuals to be productive at work and leisure. Traditionally, many people have had barriers obtaining adequate healthcare due to economic constraints or personal inconveniences. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to the Americans continues to be debated amongst the nation’s political and healthcare leaders. The aging baby-boomers and the increased number of uninsured people add to the equation of population growth which results in limited access to primary healthcare for the entire public. Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Often times, the retail clinics are located near the patients’ homes and offer unconventional office hours. Operating every day of the week, patients are usually seen as walk-ins with minimal wait times. Prescriptions can also be immediately filled while they shop for grocery or personal care items in the drug store. Moreover, the cost for the efficient quality care is relatively small compared to that of visiting primary care physicians’ practices. A usual visit to the retail clinic can run between forty to seventy dollars depending on the depth of the service. Convenience care clinics that are purposely designed to be housed in retail stores with high traffic volume have existed to accommodate the public’s quest for convenience and wellness (Hansen-Turton et al., n.d.). Although the retail clinics are fairly a new concept, the family nurse practitioners strictly adhere to the profession’s scope of practice and established protocols set forth in each retail company. The scope of practice for nurse practitioners however differs from state to state. This lack of consistency creates a hindrance to the fullest potential that the NPs can practice in certain states. Regardless, all NPs in every state are eligible for direct Medicaid reimbursement and Medicare Part B services according to the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (Hansen-Turton et al., n.d.). With or without the physician’s oversight, the FNPs practice safe care within their advanced practice Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Nurse practitioners (NPs) can have a profound and positive impact on communities through patient advocacy and exceptional service delivery. As front-line witnesses to countless patient experiences, nurse practitioners can improve public well-being through legislative activism. To accomplish this, nurses must gain skill in an unfamiliar forum — the political arena. NPs know firsthand the many issues that affect patient outcomes. These same experiences influence many nurse practitioners to make a plea for change before political figures. Initial forays into politics may feel irregular to full-time care providers. However, nurse practitioners can prepare for patient advocacy by observing the following strategies.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Participation in Community Assessments Government officials review community assessments to establish public health policies. [1] This data guides officials as to where, when and how resources are to be allocated. Local government leaders rely on health care professionals to provide relevant community health information. By participating in community assessments, nurse practitioners can help ensure that officials gather relevant and accurate information. This information may include factors such as: -Population age distributions -Community health conditions -Economic obstacles -Employment statistics -Ethnic group populations -Health care service performance levels -Housing conditions Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Government officials gather and use this information cyclically to maintain continual community well-being. Civic Interest Group Formation Nurse practitioners play a vital role in community mentorship and networking. [2] By establishing joint commissions and special interest groups, NPs can facilitate ongoing community partnerships to manage current health issues. These activities allow NPs to establish community initiatives that continually foster caregiver talent within a given locale. As community leaders, nurse practitioners can play critical roles in establishing initiatives that promote local public health, and assist in shaping an environment that responds to citizens’ needs. This supportive guidance helps provide citizens with outlets to manage ever-evolving local health matters.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Advocacy for Cost-effective Treatments and Medications Care providers and patients currently face many changes that have heightened concerns over medical expenses. [3] Many stakeholders invested in the health care field affect change through legislation. The difficulty of this process is apparent, because outcomes can increasingly affect any given party over another equally involved party. Legislators must review evidence and make decisions that best serve the public’s interest. Therefore, it is critical that nurse practitioners learn to voice the needs of community patrons’ through the legislative process.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Maintaining Rapport With Academic Influencers By continually educating administrators, students and parents about community wellness issues, nurse practitioners can establish rapport that allows them to advocate for student health. This ongoing relationship enables NPs to monitor and advocate for concerns such as ensuring sufficient nurse staffing levels in schools. Many U.S. school nurses oversee a woefully disproportionate number of students, with some districts requiring care providers to supervise multiple school facilities. By maintaining an ongoing rapport with individuals who influence academic decision-making, NPs can advocate for patients’ needs (i.e., student’s needs) as required. Additionally, nurse practitioners can present these concerns to legislative officials in a meaningful context by providing empirical data generated from local health information.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Involvement With Established Local Organizations Great competition exists among organizations rallying for general funding. [4] Nurse practitioners can stay abreast of current community issues to understand and advocate for programs that best serve the medical needs of the local population. This competitive funding climate can encourage NPs to maximize their role as a community health care professional. Nurse practitioners can build relationships that allow them to identify key public health resources, services and issues. Therefore, a well-versed understanding of all local civic interests helps NPs advocate effectively for initiatives that will improve community health outcomes.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Active Involvement in Health Care Legislation Establishing a rapport with legislative professionals represents another strategy that nurse practitioners can employ to boost their community advocacy. A professional relationship with influential local officials provides a conduit for presenting important public welfare issues. Through political affiliations, NPs can advance public wellness agendas by presenting governmental decision-makers with relevant and timely information. When serving in this capacity, nurse practitioners provide officials with logical, concise, factual and verified reports. During these presentations, NPs approach the meeting cordially, with the intention of producing a win-win outcome or finding a feasible middle ground. Nurse practitioners can exercise this approach throughout the many facets of the legislative process. Ongoing Public Education NPs can maintain community relations by providing ongoing wellness education. [5] This exposure helps build the reputation of practitioners as health care experts; promoting an ongoing, two-way dialogue that includes local residents and <ahref=”http://onlinenursing.regiscollege.edu/resources/msn/articles/what-does-an-adult-geriatric-nurse-practitioner-do/”community health concerns. This reciprocal relationship heightens the community’s involvement in its health care future and brings together practitioners and patients. Additionally, patients who are familiar with NPs as public health educators are more likely to openly express issues during their regular office visits. Working collaboratively with NP’s also makes patients more likely to support initiatives that are presented by their local community wellness advocate.Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper During service delivery, nurse practitioners receive firsthand exposure to society’s most pressing health issues. This experience, combined with training, allows NPs to serve as highly informed community health advocates. In a setting ripe with legislative maneuvering, community leadership and political health activism are skills that can greatly heighten the impact of contemporary nurse practitioners. Roles and Quality of Care Provided by Family Nurse Practitioners Essay Paper Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10

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