Nurse Practitioner and Health

Advance Practice Roles in Nursing The Main Roles Within Advanced Practice Nursing Nurse Practitioners They are charged with the responsibility to provide primary health care for clinics, hospitals and similar settings. They diagnose and treat common illnesses and immunize, examine the patients and deal with high blood pressure cases among others (Macdonald, Schreiber & Davis, 2005). Certified Nurse-Midwives: They are the ones that give gynecological care and prenatal attention to the normal women with little or no health complications.

They assist the women deliver in a range of places including hospitals, homes, clinics and health centers. They also give postpartum care (Macdonald et al., 2005). Clinical Nurse Specialists: They are the ones involved in specialty areas such as neonatal, oncology, cardiac, pediatric, gynecological nursing or obstetric service (Macdonald et al., 2005). Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists: They provide and administer over 65% of all anesthesia administered to patients every year. They are also the only ones who provide these services in hospitals spread across the health care spectrum (Macdonald et al., 2005).

Family Nurse Practitioner: a. Regulatory and Legal requirements for the State of Georgia The Georgian State Family Nurse Practitioner is led by the professional practice standards set nationally, the practice acts set by the state and the regulatory board regulations and rules. Georgia is relatively more restrictive compared to other states in the nation. It has set forth stringent admission requirements for Family Nurse Practitioners to practice fully (Stephens, 2015).

AANP included Georgia in the list of the 12 most restrictive states with regard to allowing family nurse practitioners to carry out their trade. Indeed, according to the states restrictions, a family nurse practitioner isn't allowed to provide patient care in Georgia in the absence of a physician. Even then, they must be assigned such a duty by a physician to carry out medical procedures. Some of the duties that may be assigned to an APRN and supervised by a physician include ordering tests, diagnosis of patients and prescribing drugs.

The legislature, for the first time, in Georgia, in 2006, finally gave APRN permission to run some medical procedures (Stephens, 2015). Although Family Nurse Practitioners are allowed to sign parking permits for the handicapped, they are restricted from signing death certificates. a. The Professional Organizations Available for Family Nurse Practitioner Membership Nurse Practitioners in the USA operate under a giant body called the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. AANP forms the largest national professional membership organ for all NPs.

AANP aims at empowering nurses to deliver quality nursing service by enabling them to practice and acquire the requisite education, research, advocacy and leadership skills. The organization boasts of 200 organization membership and over 65,000 individual members. The organization represents more than 222,000 NPs with licenses in America. The organization requires anyone who wants to register as a member to have successfully completed the Nurse Practitioner course or own an approved certificate by a body that is nationally granted license to provide such certification.

The membership to AANP comes at various levels and rates. However, entry-level members have an annual rate of $125. Organization members of AANP are granted a $10 discount on individual dues for membership (Wilson-Barnett, Barriball, Reynolds, Jowett & Ryrie, 2000). b. Competencies and Certification Required for FNP In order to apply for APRN authority in Georgia, one must have registered as a professional nurse in the state. Authority for advanced practice authority is given on the basis of education and specialty certification at national level.

Anyone applying to practice as an APRN in Georgia must come with a master's degree or higher. The course must offer specialized training for a specified role and must include coursework in advanced pharmacology. Such a graduate is eligible to sit the American Nurses Credentialing Center (abbreviated as ANCC), and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) exams for certification. Family nurse practitioners need to be recognized at both national level and the Board. As it stands, there are four organizations that the board cites.

These include, the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the National Certification Corporation and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, (Graduatenursingedu.org, n.d.; Wilson-Barnett et al., 2000). The licensing of Family Health Practitioner does not accept all certifications as offered by the multiplicity of approved organizations. There is an effort to develop new licensing law. The current Family Nurse Practitioner application forms may not contain the new standards. Applicants are at liberty to contact the licensing board for clarification of questions.

If a family nurse practitioner seeks to practice in an area outside where they were prepared for, they must present the necessary documentation for extra training. c. The FNP Working Environment FNPs operate in health centers as members of the healthcare service team. These range from doctors, pharmacists, other nurses to dieticians. In wider practice environment, such a family nurse practitioner may simply be part of a large team of nurses that are assigned a variety of roles.

FNPs screen, assess, and treat across the community health aspects and age spectrum. Some of the skills and values that a family nurse practitioner needs include listening skills, communication acumen, empathy, patience and a range of others to build trust among the community members that they serve. The job is ideal for those who wish to practice people skills in helping patients (Purdy, 2011). FNPs need to work in safe and healthy environments. The core determinant is the presence of peace; both physically and mentally.

It is critical to embrace a culture of safety. It is essential for the health team to render patient centered service with professionalism, accountability, efficiency and transparency. The health of the patient must be considered along with the safety of the health care provider, their empowerment and respect (Jennings, 2008). When FNPs work in favorable surroundings, they rarely quit their work centers.

Such favorable environments include the organizational environment, which includes subtle and intrinsic factors that are positive, including the chance that one will advance career-wise, the reputation, and general personal impressions of such an environment. Leadership Attributes I subscribe to democratic leadership. Such a leader readily accepts input from others in a group or team to make rich and informed decisions. This is also a broad-based approach to solving problems at the work place.

However, I also know that a leader must be firm and take responsibility for the decisions they arrive at. Democratic leadership has the advantage of motivating members of a team. The leadership style offers better and effective decisions. The style recognizes that it is not possible to be a master of everything. One cannot possibly know everything either. Collecting views from a range of experts helps a leader to make accurate and relevant decisions that are bound to be effective. a. The Required Skills Attributes: i.

Skills for Making Decision All leaders need these skills to have an impact. In health environments, decisions that are anchored on research findings are slated to obtain desirable outcomes. Yet, it is not easy to make decisions in complex environments such as health care centers. Indeed, these decisions appear to be headed for more complications (Huston, 2008). ii. Quality vs.

Safety There is research evidence that suggests that the health care system in operation today is hindered by lack of focus on the safety of both the patient and the worker (Huston, 2008). It is, therefore, imperative to pursue innovation in order to provide quality service while integrating such strategies in the daily operations. Needed Skills i. Political Astuteness Politics is part of our lives and organization. The right political decisions affect the healthcare fraternity and service delivery.

Providing leadership among nurses means identifying the details of relationship, informal structures of power, and communication (Huston, 2008). When they correctly interpret such dynamics, they will be empowered to lead the way when there is an opportunity to do so. ii. How to Cope with Change Effectively When one is faced with a healthcare system that is immersed in chaos and fast paced changes, being visionary and able to act proactively is a desirable attribute (Huston, 2008). This is the only chance to empower and encourage the workforce. i.

Political Astuteness The use of expert networks is one strategy that can be used to gain political ground. These networks should include a community of researchers, health managers, the government and others of similar stake. ii. Coping with Change Effectively Conforming the system to adapt to the new ways of doing things requires practical involvement and applying effective models and effective strategies. One can achieve such feat by becoming a change agent, personally. Demonstration of changed practice and policy and effective management of resistance tendencies is a handy strategy.

Interesting Health Policy Issue ACA has gained remarkable success; even though it has encountered great opposition on the political front, critical underfunding, and widespread public misunderstanding and a myriad of lawsuits. a. The Current Policy Areas That Needs to Be Changed There is need to have most residents of the U.S. to secure health insurance. State health benefit exchanges should be created. It is through such exchanges that citizens can purchase health insurance premiums and the low income earners can also share credits with high income subscribers.

These low income earners should be the families placed in the income range of between 133% and 400% of the poverty level defined by the federal government. Separate exchanges for small business corporate should also be established. It should also compel employers to settle penalties for their employees that receive tax credits for health insurance via an exchange. Small employers may be exempted from such policies. New rules should be imposed on health plans at the Exchange and at small group or individual markets (Kaiser Family, 2013).

Recommendations Expansion of access to health cover for small and moderate income earners, simplifying the complexity of the tax credit system, increasing credits for the middle and moderate income earners, boosting the experience on the consumer market via providing public awareness on selection coverage, bolstering network and transparency, and making sure that insurance products are standardized are the needed changes (JOST & POLLACK, 2015). b. The Change Process Article five of the constitution allows for the amendment of the constitution.

The archivist is responsible for ratification administration under U.S.C 106b provisions. The Director of Federal Register has taken up the ministerial functions from the archivist. The ratification process is not addressed in detail by any of the statutes. The secretary of state has laid out the procedures that the archivist and the Director of Federal register follow. The secretary performed the duties in the 50s. The Administrator of General Services took up these responsibilities until 1985 when NARA took it up (Federal Register, n.d.).