Anp Advanced Nursing Practice: Promotion

ANP

Advanced Nursing Practice: Promotion and Accountability

Promoting ANP to the Public:

In its traditional sense, the nursing profession is often thought of as an assistant class to medical professionals such as doctors, surgeons and clinical specialists. In spite of the important functions performed by nurses, their job roles and prospects for advancement in practice have been historically stagnant. However, that is changing considerably today as the nursing professional's role is evolving in an array of compelling directions. Even as this occurs, the public seems largely to be retained in its limited view of the role of nursing in healthcare.

However, in order for the public to reap the benefits of the expanding research and the resulting improved capacity of public and community agencies to serve demographics specifically in need, it is necessary for key populations to better understand the role of the ANP. The best route to accomplishing this is likely to be the use of outreach programs for targeted need populations. This concurs with the findings by McGee & Castledine (2003), who observe that reforms in the role of nursing have been "aimed at reducing health inequalities by improving both access to and the quality of healthcare by, for example, involving service users in service design and delivery and tailoring services to meet local needs." (p. 2)

This means that an important function of ANP is to place nurses in community roles that can help them to employ these expanded professional abilities to the specific benefit of underserved demographics. Public health agencies and community clinics should be seen as the path for promotion of advanced nursing practice, with a greater presence of these qualified professionals improving the service capabilities of otherwise frequently understaffed and resource-poor health outlets.

Avoiding Common ANP Mistakes:

That said, even as the role of the nursing professional expands, so too does the relative liability of the healthcare worker. Accordingly, we find that myriad risks to one's professional and legal status may be incurred when one takes to this next level of professional development. A significant example of this extends from the nurse's new role as a qualified medical professional capable of delivering diagnosis and treatment without the presence of a physician. For the nurse practitioner -- the agent of advanced nursing practice -- this means a more direct and personal responsibility to both the patient and the healthcare system.

It is thus that Buppert (2010) indicates that "when a nurse practitioner performs a physician service, it may be billed to Medicare under the nurse practitioner's name and provider number or, if "incident-to" or "shared billing" rules are followed, under the employer physician's name and number. A failure to follow the rules could lead to a charge of fraudulent billing." (p. 1)

This is a common mistake that can arise from a failure to adapt to new conditions and parameters in one's role as an advanced nursing professional. This denotes that in addition to one's newly gained knowledge and responsibility, one is now also expected to maintain a certain level of accountability which is not as pointedly maintained for the basic registered nurse.

Another area in which mistakes might commonly be made is the prescription of drugs. According to Buppert, the NP should take the time to review each script careful to ensure that all contraindications and side-effects have been accounted for or explained. A failure to do this can lead to liability in the event that the medication yields problematic and unexplained side-effects.