+1 862 207 3288 The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. Clinical and Non-clinical Roles of Nurses
The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. One of the advanced roles of a practice nurse is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of patients presenting with complex signs and symptoms and making an appropriate diagnosis. The practice nurse carries out detailed history taking, orders and interprets investigative results from a laboratory test and radiological imaging. Additionally, the practice nurse plans and implements the interventional measures individualized for a specific patient, in collaboration with other healthcare professionals. A practice nurse makes a clinical decision on patient management, making consideration of the relevant ethical, legal and cultural implications. Research is another advanced role of practice nurses. Practice nurses carry out comprehensive, and methodically relevant enquires to provide answers to specific questions affecting nursing practice. Practice nurses, after that, summaries, the results of research and contributes towards given nursing practices based on the results of research studies. Financial management and health policymaking and implementation is another advanced role of a practice nurse. Nurses are responsible for making financial estimates based on the equipment, staffing, and services requirements of the healthcare units that they are responsible for running. Practice nurses make contributions to the management of health care insurance programs and processes. Nurses are responsible for drafting public health policies, making contributions in national and state laws affecting the provision of healthcare services (Herrera, Mayor, Martín-Santos, Uttumchandani, Campos, Bautista, & Asencio, 2016).
The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. Clinical and Non-clinical Roles of Nurses
A clinical nurse generally carries out duties through direct interaction with the patient within a hospital setting. Therefore, clinical nurses have a duty to identify patients and residents while providing care correctly. The National Patient Safety Guidelines (NPSGs) require that clinicians identify patients using at least two specific identifiers, for example, name and the identification number. Besides, one of the clinical roles of nurses is to implement management approaches to the patient, such as pharmaco-therapeutic interventions. Also, according to NPSGs, health care professionals, including nurses, are responsible for ensuring safe medication practices. Inappropriate dosages and adverse reactions to drugs and their physiological effects may cause harm to the patient. Anti-coagulant medication should be implemented with care. Clinical nurses ensure the right drug, right dosage, is administered to the right at the right time and on the right route.
Further, the nurse should only administer anti-coagulant treatment after the establishment of baseline data, for example, the International Normalized Ratios (INRs).
On the other hand, non-clinical roles of a nurse include; policy-making, education, research, and d nursing informatics management. According to NPSGs clinicians have a role to prevent Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). The clinical role of nurses is to practice hand-washing procedure as per Center for Disease Preventions (CDC) guidelines. Further, facilities should establish a policy on hand-washing and periodic compliance evaluations. Therefore, the non-clinical role of nursing administrators is to make contributions towards hand washing policies within the healthcare system. The non-clinical roles of nurses as educators involve education of clinical nurses on the common HAIs, preventive measures to against contraction of HIAs, assessments of the risk of occurrence of HAIs and management interventions for HAIs.Additionally, the managerial role of nurses includes surveillance of the occurrence of multi-drug resistant infections within the hospital. Further, nurse managers are responsible for facilitating policymaking and surveillance programs and exercises tailored prevention of multi-drug resistant infections (Ulrich & Kear, 2014).
The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. Clinical and Non-clinical Roles of Nurses
Research Articles
Jones (2015) carried out a research study to identify the factors that determine the effective role performance of advanced practice nurse. The study involved qualitative meta-analysis of previously conducted studies on the same topic. The factors that identified food to define the role and determine the effectiveness of the advanced nurse practitioner’s roles are; experience and educational levels, organizational structuring, the relationship with other nursing personnel and availability of resources.
The study concluded that the structure of the healthcare system and facilities should give positions and formulate policies that support the functioning of advanced practice nurses. The roles of advanced nurse practitioner should be well stated to avoid ambiguity. The study further recommends the allocation offer source for the advanced nurse to carry out managerial, informatics, policy-making and educational roles within the American healthcare system (Jones, 2015).
Humphreys, Johnson, Richardson, Stenhouse, Watkins, (2017) carried out research studies to identify the effectiveness and extent of the practice of advanced nurse roles by relevantly trained nurses. The study reviewed documented articles on advanced nursing roles such as research, education, leadership, and provision of expert opinions to the nursing personnel. The study found out that provision of expert opinion and leadership were the most commonly practiced advanced nursing roles by advanced nursing practitioners. The study concluded that there are factors that affect the functioning of the nurse practitioner in the roles of research and education. The researchers, therefore, recommend that further to be done to establish the cost-effectiveness of the established advanced nursing practice roles (Humphreys, Johnson, Richardson, Stenhouse, & Watkins, 2017).
The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. Clinical and Non-clinical Roles of Nurses.
In conclusion, advanced roles of practice nurses include; patient assessment, implementation of interventions to manage conditions, financial management and health policy-making, implementation and compliance evaluation. Clinical and non-clinical roles of nurses contribute towards achieving NSPGs. Clinical nurses ensure prevention of infections within the clinical setting and safeguard patients’ safety against harmful medication and falls. Non-clinical nurses are generally, involved in policy formulation, education, and compliance on patient safety issues as guided through the NPSGs.
The Role of an Advanced Practice Nurse. Clinical and Non-clinical Roles of Nurses. References
Humphreys, A., Johnson, S., Richardson, J., Stenhouse, E., & Watkins, M. (2017). A systematic review and meta‐synthesis: evaluating the effectiveness of nurse, midwife/allied health professional consultants. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16(10), 1792-1808.
Jones, M. L. (2015). Role development and effective practice in specialist and advanced practice roles in acute hospital settings: systematic review and meta‐synthesis. Journal of advanced nursing, 49(2), 191-209.
Morilla-Herrera, J. C., Garcia-Mayor, S., Martín-Santos, F. J., Uttumchandani, S. K., Campos, Á. L., Bautista, J. C., & Morales-Asencio, J. M. (2016). A systematic review of the effectiveness and roles of advanced practice nursing. International journal of nursing studies, 53, 290-307.
Ulrich, B., & Kear, T. (2014). Patient safety and patient safety culture: Foundations of excellent health care delivery. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41(5), 447-456.
