Role of the Advanced Practice Nurse in Patient Education

In the current increasingly complex healthcare industry, the advanced nursing practice is playing a pivotal role when it comes to patient education and assessment of the health outcomes.

The advanced nursing practice has offered new techniques and approaches to delivering cost-effective care. Its contribution in the medical field is also evident in increasing access to the qualified practitioners for the patients and their families (Parker, 2017).

It is important to understand that one of the major challenges facing the healthcare industry today is medical errors originating from the nurses in the administration and prescription of medication and the patient themselves in the adherence to the guidelines and directions of the medical experts. Advanced nurses have granted considerable attention to the under-served populations.

Despite the fact that the advanced nurses work in collegial capacities with the help of physicians, they are also prepared to diagnose and as well treat patients with chronic and acute illnesses. These are responsibilities that necessitate nursing professionals who are savvy and smart, caring and compassionate (Parker, 2017).

Advanced practice nurses obtain health histories of the patients and perform physical examinations including developmental, functional and psychosocial assessment. They also play a key role in the development of differential diagnoses in order to develop a therapeutic plan of care.

Advanced practice nurses evaluate the response of the patients to a given plan of care and undertake modifications where necessary.

In other words, the primary responsibility of advanced practice nurses is to collect information regarding things that may be jeopardizing the welfare of the patients and devise more amicable ways of addressing them. They also give counsel, participate in medical research studies and arrange for patient consultations and referrals (Allen, 2014).

References

Allen, D. (2014). Re-reading nursing and re-writing practice: towards an empirically based reformulation of the nursing mandate. Nursing Inquiry; 11(4):271-83.

Parker, J. (2017). A review of advanced practice nursing in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China.