¶ … Advance Practice Nursing Advance Practice Nurses Defined

Throughout history nursing has been defined in many ways. In recent years the field of advance practice nursing has emerged as nurses are taking on more challenging and comprehensive roles within the health care field. One may define an advance practice nurse in many ways. According to the Department of Regulation and Licensing in Wisconsin, and advanced practice nurse is a registered nurse with the following credentials: (1) holds a professional nursing license within the state, (2) is certified by a national certifying authority as a nurse practitioners, registered nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse specialist or other nursing specialist and (3) a registered nurse who holds a graduate degree by an accredited university (DRL, 2004). This definition is fairly standard among most other nursing institutions.

In most cases advanced practice nurses may not prescribe medications, though there is now a certification APN's can get that allow them to prescribe medications in certain instances. According to the American Nurses Association and advanced practice nurse or APN is an "umbrella term given to a registered nurse (RN) who has met advanced educational and clinical practice requirements" (ANA, 2005). An APN therefore generally has more than 2-4 years of basic nursing education (ANA, 2005). An APN is expected to carry out more autonomous responsibilities than a traditional RN, including diagnosis and treatment of patients in many instances. One may conclude from these two comparisons then that an APN is a highly specialized nurse with advanced skills in diagnosis and treatment of disease among other things.

Role of APN

APN's come in many forms and their roles change significantly depending on their specialty or key area of practice. The more common specialties or fields a nurse...

The role of an APN varies according to their specialty, however most provide a multitude of services for patients in employment settings, clinical care settings, retirement communities, hospitals and even schools (ANA, 2005).
Because most people are familiar with the term nurse practitioner or NP, we'll examine the role of a NP more closely. A NP usually works within a clinical setting, private office, and hospital or in a nursing home (ANA, 2005). Many are specialized in a specific field like pediatrics or obstetrics. NP's conduct a variety of medical care tasks, which may include diagnosis, comprehensive medical histories, physical examinations, interpretation of labs or X-rays and patient education (ANA, 2005). Nurse Midwives on the other hand provide gynecologic and obstetric care for women including prenatal care and labor and delivery care (ANA, 2005). Certified nurse midwifes represent one of the fastest growing areas of APN practice in recent years (ANA, 2005).

The role of the APN also includes psychological support for patients and their family members. Nurses generally engage in much more intimate relationships with patients in many situations than primary care providers or physicians. They often have the opportunity to talk more to patients about their histories, current environment, lifestyle and needs, wants and desires with regard to health care practices (Lumby, 2004). This intimate bond opens many avenues for support and growth within the healthcare profession as nurses begin realizing new ways of meeting patient needs and offering the highest possible level of quality care.

Lumby (2004) suggests that the term advance practice nurse or even nurse practitioner is one that is…