Nurse practitioner policy

BACKGROUND: Growing global demand for palliative care services has prompted generalist clinicians to provide adjunct support to specialist teams. Paramedics are uniquely placed to respond to these patients in the community. However, embedding palliative care principles into their core business will require multifactorial interventions at structural, healthcare service and individual clinician and consumer levels. AIM: To develop a palliative paramedicine framework suitable for national implementation, to standardise best practice in Australia...

PURPOSE: Practitioners in China who implement hospice care services include doctors, nurses, and care workers. These individuals play an important role in the holistic care of patients at the end of life and their families. This study aimed to provide baseline data to develop hospice care services and improve relevant policies by investigating the knowledge and attitudes of hospice care practitioners (HCPs) and analyzing influencing factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study used stratified sampling and quota sampling...

BACKGROUND: Workplace violence and harassment are commonplace for healthcare workers and most incidents are unreported. Normalization of these experiences, lack of confidence in reporting systems, and fear of the consequences of reporting contribute to the invisibility of these experiences. Challenges are exacerbated in homecare settings and for precarious workforces including Personal Support Workers (PSWs). We created, piloted, and evaluated an intervention to enhance safety culture and encourage reporting of workplace violence and harassment...

BACKGROUND: Long-term urinary catheters are problematic and burdensome for patients, carers and health services. Nursing practice to improve the management of long-term urinary catheters has been held back by a lack of evidence to support policy and practice. Little is known about who uses a catheter long term and the resources and costs needed for their management. Understanding these costs will help to target innovations to improve care. There have been no substantial innovations to urinary catheters or their management recently and no publications to characterise users and costs...

INTRODUCTION: This scoping review was undertaken to obtain conceptual clarification about how racism and cultural safety are understood by interdisciplinary health professionals globally in the aged care sector in regional, rural and remote areas. There is evidence in Australia and internationally that racism is a factor impacting significantly on the health of First Peoples and other racialised minorities. Recent policy changes in Australia have required health professionals to integrate cultural safety into their practice to mitigate racism and improve the health of older First Nations Australians and older people from diverse ethnic and cultural groups...

INTRODUCTION: Human trafficking is a heinous crime and violation of human rights affecting between 25 and 27 million adults and children globally each year. Current immigration and refugee policy could exacerbate the human trafficking public health crisis. Health care providers working in emergency department and urgent care settings interact with human trafficking victims and provide life-changing care. Research identifies a significant need for coordinated, consistent, and standardized education on human trafficking...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed immense pressure on healthcare workers (HCWs). OBJECTIVES: This study sought to find the prevalence and factors associated with psychological distress among HCWs in South Africa during the beginning phases of COVID-19 and make relevant recommendations. METHOD: The survey was administered online through a data-free platform. Data were benchmarked to the national population of over 500 000 healthcare professionals in South Africa...

PURPOSE: Research demonstrates that aging in place is the goal of most adults aged >50 years. Unfortunately, multiple barriers to aging in place continue to exist, especially for vulnerable populations. Achieving this goal will require innovative nurse-led models of care and new policies for RN reimbursement. The current article describes a nurse-led clinic implemented in one community. METHOD: Using an evidence-based nurse-led model of care, a team of university faculty, students, and a family nurse practitioner designed and implemented a nurse-led clinic for a religious community in the Pacific Northwest...

INTRODUCTION: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention and management are susceptible issues that require specific rules to sustain and oversee their functioning, as preventing VTE is a vital patient safety priority. This paper aims to investigate and provide recommendations for VTE assessment and reassessment through policy enhancement and development. METHODS: We reviewed different papers and policies to propose recommendations and theme analysis for policy modifications and enhancements to improve VTE prophylaxis and management...

This article explores the dynamic role of nurse practitioners in Japan, contextualized against an aging population and declining birth rates. It emphasizes the imperative for Japanese nurse practitioners to broaden their scope of practice to effectively meet the nation's diverse healthcare demands within a constrained resource framework. The study highlights the critical need for Japan to align its nurse practitioners' training with international educational standards, advocating for a graduate-level curriculum that blends in-depth theoretical knowledge with practical skillsets...

Traditionally, in many countries general practices have been privately-owned independent small businesses. However, the last three decades has seen the rise of large corporate medical groups defined as private companies which are able to have non-GP shareholders and with branches across many locations. The greater prominence of profit motives may have implications for costs, access to care and quality of care. We estimate that 45% of GPs in Australia worked in a practice that was a private company, and within this group over one third (19...

OBJECTIVES: Medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is effective and recommended for outpatient settings. We implemented and evaluated the SUpporting Primary care Providers in Opioid Risk reduction and Treatment (SUPPORT) Center-a quality improvement partnership to implement stepped care for MOUD in 2 Veterans Health Administration (VA) primary care (PC) clinics. METHODS: SUPPORT provided a dedicated clinical team (nurse practitioner prescriber and social worker) and stepped care ([1] identification, assessment, referral; [2] MOUD induction; [3] stabilization; and [4] maintenance supporting PC providers [PCPs] to initiate and/or sustain treatment) coupled with ongoing internal facilitation (consultation, trainings, informatics support)...

BACKGROUND: Telehealth-only medication for opioid use disorder (teleMOUD) treatment with buprenorphine was first made possible in the United States during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. As a result, several large provider groups now treat opioid use disorder (OUD) patients in nearly every state using telehealth. This study evaluates the perceptions and experiences of providers working almost exclusively in a teleMOUD program. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 providers (physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners) using a semi-structured interview guide...

To examine the association between psychologist and nurse practitioner scope-of-practice (SoP) regulations and pediatric mental health service access. A nationally representative sample of children with mental health needs was identified using 5 years of National Survey of Children's Health (2016-2020). Utilization was measured in two ways: (1) unmet mental health care needs and (2) receipt of mental health medication. Expanded SoP for psychologists and nurse practitioners was measured based on the child's state of residence and the year of the survey...

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C (HCV) is highly prevalent in First Nations communities globally. Barriers in the uptake of testing and treatment create challenges to realise elimination of HCV in these communities. In efforts to reduce barriers to testing and treatment, the SCALE-C study implemented an HCV test-and-treat intervention integrating point-of-care HCV testing and FibroScan®. SCALE-C was carried out at four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS; renowned for providing culturally safe care) in four regional towns in Australia...

OBJECTIVES: To compare industry payment patterns among US psychiatrists and psychiatric advanced practice clinicians (APCs) and determine how scope of practice laws has influenced these patterns. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: This study used the publicly available US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Sunshine Act Open Payment database and the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) database for the year 2021...

AIM: To develop a framework to guide the successful integration of nurse practitioners (NPs) into practice settings and, working from a social justice lens, deliver comprehensive primary healthcare which advances health equity. DESIGN: Integrative review. METHODS: The integrative review was informed by the Whittemore and Knafl's framework and followed the Preferred Reporting for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Quality was assessed using the Johns Hopkins Research Evidence Appraisal Tool...

INTRODUCTION: The pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) workforce was designed to improve child health equity. We aimed to systematically review the evidence on facilitators and barriers to PNP practice. METHOD: We included empirical studies on PNP practice in the United States and excluded studies with non-identifiable PNP data. We applied Joanna Briggs Institute tools to appraise studies and applied critical interpretive synthesis principles to synthesize. RESULTS: The final sample is 26 studies, mostly published before 2013 and observational...

In Germany, a person's need for nursing care is assessed by evaluators according to the federal legal definition of the statutory long-term care insurance (LTCI). This definition and the associated standardized assessment tool constitute the conditions for providing nursing care in a community care setting in Germany. Furthermore, the community care setting is regulated by state law and negotiations between long-term care funds and associations of providers of nursing care. During nursing care, nurses engage in a variety of interactions with people...

BACKGROUND: Innovative technology can enhance patient access to healthcare but must be successfully implemented to be effective. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) implementation of My VA Images, a direct-to-patient asynchronous teledermatology mobile application enabling established dermatology patients to receive follow-up care remotely instead of in-person. DESIGN /PARTICIPANTS/APPROACH: Following pilot testing at 3 facilities, the app was introduced to 28 facilities (4 groups of 7) every 3 months using a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized design...