Advanced practice nursing in geriatrics: career pathway and clinical impact

Masters in Nursing Overview

The person selected for this interview is my mentor, an advanced nurse practitioner who specializes in geriatrics. She said she began her nursing career by graduating with a bachelor's degree in nursing at the University of California at Berkeley. The program at Berkeley well prepared her for her initial role as a registered nurse. While in school, she mentioned, she was able to procure an internship in the healthcare field which helped her confirm that she actually wanted to have a career as a nurse. After working as a registered nurse for approximately five years, she decided to earn a Master's of Science in Nursing so that she could become an advanced nurse practitioner. To her delight, after earning her degree from the University of California at Berkeley approximately 10 years ago, she was able to obtain a position at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland as an advanced nursing practitioner specializing in geriatrics.

Reason for seeking graduate education

My mentor explained to me that her decision for seeking graduate education was almost entirely predicated on expanding her expertise in the field of geriatrics. More specifically, however, she emphasized that as an APN in this field, she could do much more to serve her patient population. Instead of merely conducting examinations for patients and doing some of the more remedial tasks associated with working as a registered nurse, she can do more things (such as prescribe medication) to help her patients. The impact that she had on her patients expanded accordingly after getting her master's degree, which she said was her main reason for choosing to continue her education. She stressed the fact that her interest in geriatics, coupled with her desire to do more to offer better care for her patients, served as the impetus for her to gain APN status in this field.

Usefulness of graduate education for present role

When I asked my mentor about the usefulness of her graduate education in her present role, her initial response was to laugh. She mentioned quite frankly that she would not be able to do what she was doing -- successfully -- without such an education. She then went on to denote the fact that much of her graduate education was based on working with patients that are part of the geriatrics facet of healthcare. In addition to absorbing frequent conditions and afflictions that older people become susceptible to, she mentioned that she also learned a fair amount of the psychological component about working with such patients. She seemed to value the human interaction with treatment and its effects on the patients, which was part of her graduate education, as much as anything else she learned.

Pearls of wisdom he/she is willing to share

Interestingly enough, virtually all of the advice and "pearls of wisdom" that my mentor was willing to share revolve around the core competencies that she achieved in her master's degree program. One of the foremost pieces of advice she gave was the importance of utilizing evidenced-based practices within this profession. She said that it actually requires a dedicated effort on the part of a practitioner to translate her educational experience -- and the various theories with which it is comprised -- into a foundation to utilize proven evidence to influence treatment. Another critical core competency she shared was her desire to emphasize prevention over cure. She mentioned that this competency was slightly a catch 22 because she typically treats patients that are experiencing an issue. Still, she underpinned the notion that preventive measures are more desirable than curative ones, and that it is never to late to impart the former upon patients.