Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Practitioner

BACKGROUND: There is a wealth of international evidence concerning the contribution post-registration master's level education makes to advancing the discipline of nursing. There are approximately 277 nurse practitioners registered in NZ, but they account for only a small portion of nurses who have undertaken master's level education. The additional contribution these nurses make to the work environment through advanced practice activities has not, hitherto, been documented. OBJECTIVES: To report the extent of advanced practice nurse activity associated with various levels of nursing education in a sample of nurses working in clinical practice in New Zealand...

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness and prescribing practices among Washington State medical providers from diverse professional disciplines and practice types. METHODS: In May 2016, we administered an anonymous online survey to licensed medical practitioners who provide primary, longitudinal, walk-in, emergency, obstetric, gynecologic, sexually transmitted infection (STI), or family planning care. RESULTS: Of 735 eligible providers, 64...

This chapter explores the role of advanced practice clinicians (APCs) and patient care coordinators in the head and neck cancer setting. APCs, which include physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs), are licensed professional healthcare providers who diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret diagnostic tests, and prescribe pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical therapies. Although the training, education, and licensure differ between PAs and NPs, their roles are quite similar in head and neck surgery...

AIMS: Obligatory Ramadan fasting is challenging in the management of Muslims with diabetes due to increased risk of complications from altered meals and activities. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, perception and practice of healthcare professionals in diabetes management during fasting and the outcome of education on management. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We surveyed healthcare professionals enrolled in pre-Ramadan education involving an endocrinologist, diabetes specialized nurse and dietician...

Acute and chronic wound infections create clinical, economic, and patient-centered challenges best met by multidisciplinary wound care teams providing consistent, valid, clinically relevant, safe, evidence-based management across settings. To develop an evidence-based wound infection guideline, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases were searched from inception through August 1, 2017 using the terms (or synonyms) wound infection and risk factor, significant, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, or surveillance...

Patient experience is a vital component of quality health care. In our institution we sought to improve both nursing satisfaction and collaboration, in conjunction with improving patient experience, predicting the two are directly proportional. We hypothesized that a more satisfied nursing team would result in an overall improvement in patient experience. To explore this hypothesis, we implemented multiple process changes to create an advanced practitioner-directed floor (APDF) on our 28-bed trauma, medical-surgical unit...

Background and Objectives: The need to reduce burdensome and costly hospitalizations of frail nursing home residents is well documented. The Optimizing Patient Transfers, Impacting Medical Quality, and Improving Symptoms: Transforming Institutional Care (OPTIMISTIC) project achieved this reduction through a multicomponent collaborative care model. We conducted an implementation-focused project evaluation to describe stakeholders' perspectives on (a) the most and least effective components of the intervention; (b) barriers to implementation; and (c) program features that promoted its adoption...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND: The work of specialist nursing has been under scrutiny for many years in the UK due to a perception that it is not cost-effective. A common issue is the lack of consistency of job titles, which causes confusion to the public, employing organisations, colleagues and commissioners of services. Lack of consistency has implications for the wider perception of advanced specialist practice in the worldwide community and the workforce more generally. This study aims to understand the variation in job titles in the UK population...

Nurse practitioners (NPs) now have prescriptive authority for controlled substances in all 50 states in the United States. Florida, the last state to grant NPs DEA licensure, has been wrought with prescription diversion practices for a number of years as pill mills, doctor shopping, and overprescribing proliferated. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) help curb drug diversion activity and play a key role in reducing the abuse of controlled substances. The primary objective of this education improvement initiative was to increase knowledge of actively licensed NPs in the state of Florida regarding the state's PDMP...

Specialty trained emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs) can meet the demands of an unpredictable emergency care environment within an overburdened health care system. Although existing literature supports fellowship training as a method for bridging academic knowledge with clinical experiences for the novice nurse practitioner, the currently available emergency care postgraduate fellowship programs are inconsistent in approach. Building upon descriptive data provided by the existing 9 postgraduate ENP fellowship programs, a comparison and gap analysis of program content was conducted to identify perceived standards for ENP specialty education and the congruence with published ENP competencies...

In the United States, the fight to eradicate hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been ongoing for many years, but the results have been less than ideal. Historically, patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) were treated with interferon-based regimens, which were associated with frequent adverse effects, suboptimal response rates, and long durations of treatment - of up to 48 weeks. Expertise from specialist-physicians, such as hepatologists and gastroenterologists, was needed to closely follow patients on these medications so as to monitor laboratory values and manage adverse effects...

INTRODUCTION: Little information has been published regarding the actual practice, training, and validation of basic skills and competencies needed by the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) in the emergency care setting. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify skills being performed by APRNs practicing in emergency care settings (2); explore types of training; and (3) describe competency validation. Additionally, we explored frequency of skill use and facilitators and barriers to performing a skill to the full extent of training and education...

Students completing an advanced practice RN program for practice as a nurse practitioner may seek options for further advancement. Although postgraduate clinical fellowship programs exist, information about such programs is not readily available. This article offers a resource for faculty to assist graduate students in finding advanced practice RN nurse practitioner fellowship programs in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Primary care in the United States is changing: practice size is increasing, there is a growing shortage of primary care practitioners, and there is a heightened prevalence of chronic disease. Given these trends, it is likely that registered nurses will become important members of the primary care team. PURPOSE: This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in primary care delivery in the 21st century and examines the likelihood of expanded roles for RNs to improve quality and add capacity to the primary care workforce...

Increasing numbers of patients are presenting to national emergency departments (EDs). This is occurring simultaneously with reductions in providers along with ED closures, creating a significant gap in emergency care. According to the advanced practice registered nurse consensus model, specialty-specific knowledge and practice build upon generalist nurse practitioner (NP) population foci. Although the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties provides guidelines for educational programs at the NP population level, determination of core specialty knowledge lies with specialty organizations...

BACKGROUND: Globally, disasters are on the rise. Nurses play a significant role in responding to such events but little is known about rural and remote nurses' experiences. METHODS: A national cross-sectional survey of regulated nurses (registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners) in rural and remote Canada provided the data (n=2465) for the logistic regression of predictors of assisting with a disaster event within the last five years...

PURPOSE/AIMS: The purpose of this study was to examine the management of patient's neuropathic pain with capsaicin 8% in a nurse-led clinic when administered by 1 registered advanced nurse practitioner without physician supervision. DESIGN: A longitudinal, single-group, descriptive research design was used to assess pain scores and quality of life 3 times over 3 months after treatment. METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of neuropathic pain were assessed and treated with capsaicin 8% by 1 advanced nurse practitioner with prescriptive authority in a nurse-led clinic...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to provide a review of the history and process to obtaining advanced practice licensure for clinical nurse specialists in Washington State. Before 2016, Washington State licensed certified nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and certified nurse anesthetists under the designation of an advanced registered nurse practitioner; however, the state did not recognize clinical nurse specialists as advanced practice nurses. The work to drive the rule change began in 2007...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) continue to be a persistent problem in the acute care arena. The purpose of this retrospective quality improvement study was to examine if the introduction of nurse practitioners (NPs), as wound care consultants (WCCs), without other interventions, impacted the HAPI rates in a community hospital. METHODS: A retrospective, comparison design was used; 48 months of HAPI data (May 2010-2014) reported on the monthly National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) survey was abstracted from hospital records...

Health care practitioners serve an important role in identification and assistance of human trafficking victims. Advanced practice registered nurses, including certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse practitioners, are in a unique position to interact with persons trafficked and seen in the clinical setting, yet they require knowledge to identify the signs of human trafficking. Lack of training and education has been identified as a barrier for health care professionals to recognize human trafficking victims and implement needed health care services (; )...