Summary
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) should “provide adequate care to clients with a wide range of health concerns across the life span” (Peterson, Phillips, Puffer, Bazemore, & Petterson, 2013, p. 244). Such practitioners should offer quality holistic care that can affect the lives of different patients, communities, and families. Lathrop and Hodnicki (2014) define “Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) as advanced practice nurses who collaborate with different caregivers or work autonomously to provide family-focused care to their patients” (p. 4). Some of the services offered by FNPs include disease prevention, health promotion, counseling, and direct support. This essay, therefore, describes my future role as an FNP. The nature of care offered by FNPs revolves around the family setting. This means that such practitioners can offer adequate care to both adults and children.
Type of Organization
The targeted organization is a magnet hospital. The targeted medical facility has been providing evidence-based care to its clients. The practitioners in the facility work hard to deliver excellent medical support. The nurses, caregivers, and practitioners in the hospital record very high levels of job satisfaction. The level of employee turnover is very low thus attracting more clients. This kind of organization will support my current and future goals as an FNP (Peterson et al., 2013). The experience will also equip me with better medical skills and competencies. I will eventually become a leading provider of evidence-based care.
Type of Hospital
The targeted magnet facility will be a special functioning hospital. Such hospitals deliver advanced medical support and care to different patients (Parsons & Cornett, 2011). The facility has 40 beds. The institution currently serves patients with complex medical complications. The facility can provide adequate medical care to forty patients. The institution also focuses on the best health practices to offer quality medical care.
The Professional Fit for Advanced Nursing Role
Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) have graduate-level training thus making them qualified providers of medical care. They can diagnose, identify, and treat certain conditions. Their background “in clinical training makes it easier for ANPs to serve as administrators, caregivers, and policymakers” (Lathrop & Hodnicki, 2014, p. 7). Their competencies make it easier for them to treat patients with mild or serious medical conditions. Hospitals should focus on “the needs of adults, the elderly, and children” (Iglehart, 2013, p. 1937). ANPs can therefore perform a wide range of healthcare duties to produce the best results. The skills possessed by ANPs make it easier for them to support the changing health needs of every patient. My educational background will support my new role as an ANP. I will always place much emphasis on the well-being of the targeted patients. This goal can be achieved through proper diagnosis and the provision of quality treatment.
Implementing My New Nursing Role
I will undertake a wide range of duties in this hospital. It will also be my duty to focus on the best practices that can support the facility’s magnet status. To begin with, I will always develop the best treatment regimes for various chronic conditions affecting most of the targeted patients. I will always educate my clients “to embrace the best lifestyle habits and disease prevention practices” (Iglehart, 2013, p. 1938). My competencies will make it easier for me to perform various diagnoses and medical evaluations. FNPs should also “manage overall patient care to promote the best lifestyle outcomes” (Iglehart, 2013, p. 1939). My duty will also be “to emphasize disease management and continued preventative care” (Parsons & Cornett, 2011, p. 280). The practice will reduce the number of conditions affecting many patients.
Board of Nursing: the Nurse Practice Act
Nurses should be ready to support the changing health needs of their respective patients. However, some errors and malpractices have been widely associated with poor nursing practices. Such malpractices have led to the establishment of various medical boards. Such boards promote the best practices to produce quality medical outcomes. They also support the changing needs of different clients. The Nurse Practice Act (NPA) offers powerful rules that govern the parameters of medical practices. The board also “identifies appropriate laws to protect patients from every unsafe or unprofessional nursing practice” (Blair & Jansen, 2015, p. 76). Such guidelines and regulations tame the practices embraced by different practitioners.
That being the case, I will use these laws and regulations whenever providing evidence-based support to the targeted clients. I will follow every regulation to produce the best medical outcomes. I will also focus on the outlined medical practices and responsibilities. The important goal is to support the changing health needs of different clients (Freed, G., Dunham, Loveland-Cherry, & Martyn, 2010). As well, I will embrace the competencies and guidelines provided by the Nursing Practice Act (NPA). Such guidelines will widen my scope of practice and eventually make me a competent FNP. The guidelines stipulated by the NPA will guide me whenever providing competent care to different clients. I will always embrace various skills and evidence-based practices to support my clients. These practices will support the vision of this magnet hospital.
Reference List
Blair, K., & Jansen, M. (2015). Advanced Practice Nursing: Core Concepts for Professional Role Development. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Freed, G., Dunham, K., Loveland-Cherry, C., & Martyn, K. (2010). Family Nurse Practitioners: Roles and Scope of Practice in the Care of Pediatric Patients. Pediatrics, 126(5), 861-864.
Iglehart, J. (2013). Expanding the Role of Advanced Nurse Practitioners: Risks and Rewards. The New England Journal of Medicine, 368(1), 1935-1941.
Lathrop, B., & Hodnicki, D. (2014). The Affordable Care Act: Primary Care and the Doctor of Nursing Practice Nurse. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 19(1), 1-24.
Parsons, M., & Cornett, P. (2011). Sustaining the Pivotal Organizational Outcome: Magnet Recognition. Journal of Nursing Management, 19(1), 277-286.
Peterson, L., Phillips, R., Puffer, J., Bazemore, A., & Petterson, S. (2013). Most Family Physicians Work Routinely With Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, or Certified Nurse Midwives. JABFM, 26(3), 244-245.