Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) includes many different kinds of roles in the nursing profession. Among the functions that are gradually becoming essential in healthcare is the family nurse practitioner (FNP). According to Mackey and Bassendowski (2017) , the demand for these professionals is rapidly growing because of the changing healthcare policies, an increasing number of health insurance options, and the rising aging population. Historically, FNPs have centered on adopting a holistic approach in helping individuals, families, and communities to solve their health problems (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). This paper aims to explore the impact of this clinical role in enhancing the health outcomes at the APN level.
Distinguish the Role as Clinical or Non-Clinical and How It Promotes Patient Outcomes
The FNP is a non-clinical role in the healthcare domain, which allows the practitioners to offer quality, inclusive, safe, and patient-centric care while augmenting the health and welfare of diverse populaces for humanity's wellbeing. The FNP task, according to Östlund et al. (2016) , majorly focusses on preventive health. Besides, these professionals participate in patient examination, diagnosis, and management of acute and chronic conditions.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Presently, many patients are booking appointments with FNPs instead of physicians due to the general belief that these nurses would provide them with optimized health care. As Mackey and Bassendowski (2017) state, these specialists in the realm of preventative health have a unique responsibility of enriching the health of individuals in care facilities and communities through evidence-based interventions. They achieve these by galvanizing their patients to utilize preventative services, including screenings (Östlund et al., 2016) . Consequently, FPNs use public health education and promotion strategies to encourage as many individuals as possible to engage in health-conscious lifestyles to lessen the disease burden in their communities.
A family nurse practitioner propagates a safety culture by allowing patients to retrieve their health information in the electronic medical records (EMR). Yingling et al., (2017) suggest that when patients are permitted to access their EMR data, they can identify mistakes in their medical histories and medications. Family nurses have been trained in using informatics in different settings to enhance safe, effective, and patient-centered care (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). Individual patient needs are guiding contemporary family nursing care. The information from the EMRs enables FPNs to document a patient's medical history accurately and seamlessly share this data with inter-professional teams to manage illnesses effectively (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). Consequently, FPNs have acquired the capacity to use electronic devices to improve documentation for easier clinical decision-making. The functions lead to improved patient outcomes.
Apply an Advanced Nursing Practice Concept to Your Chosen Role
The Advanced Nursing Practice (ANP) concept continues to divide opinion in the nursing profession, and the concept has been debated for decades across several jurisdictions (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). ANP entails improved and expanded health care services delivered by nurses that have an advanced capability to influence patient outcomes and implement direct healthcare interventions to individuals, families, and communities (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). The practice is driven by professionals with expert knowledge, complex decision-making capacity, and clinical proficiency. Although there challenges in conceptualizing the nursing practice, the shared consensus is that APN is concerned with progressing nursing roles across the healthcare sector.
The idea of advanced nursing practice is pertinent in the family nurse practitioner role, especially in primary care. Clinical leadership is among the core tenets of ANP that can expand the family nurse's influence in health care (Mackey & Bassendowski, 2017). The concept is integral to the FNP role as it allows the nurses to establish strong provider-patient relationships and fosters clinical excellence. For instance, family nurses can use transformational clinical leadership strategies to advocate for patient safety and promote inter-professional communication and collaboration on creating and implementing advanced nursing practice programs. As an FNP, clinical leadership skills encapsulated in ANP, will facilitate safe and quality care.
As stipulated in the APN, professionalism is central to the success of the family nurse specialist role. All kinds of nurses are guided by a set of values essential to advancing the quality of care while enriching the techniques, standards, and verdicts that influence routine nursing practices (Yingling et al., 2017). In the family nursing practice, working in professional settings such as community homes and care facilities can enable practitioners to hone useful skills at all stages of their profession, from novice clinical responsibilities to senior leadership roles. Additionally, adherence to professional values allows FNPs to safeguard the health and well-being of their clients (Yingling et al., 2017). For example, by handling individuals within a specific community in a respectful manner, they can make better personal health choices. In some cases, FNPs are required to work with inter-professional teams, and offering team members the chance to request assistance is a sound approach that can reduce medical errors.
Develop a Minimum of Ten Questions That You Would Like to Ask the Advanced Practice Clinician
I look forward to interviewing Monica Sanders, an FNP currently working in the Emergency Department of one of the country's largest hospitals in three weeks. She also has experience working in various nursing homes and outpatient clinics. At the ED, Monica works under multiple physicians. The following is a set of questions I will seek to ask her revolving around her position as an FNP:
What motivated you to work in acute care settings and family nursing, and what factors contributed to your decision in determining that this domain of advanced nursing was the most suitable for you?
What are some of your roles and responsibilities as an FNP at the facility? What kinds of illnesses and issues do your patients encounter, and how do you help them manage the health conditions?
Tell me about a time when you observed unethical conduct at your place of work and how you responded.
In your routine assignment, have you ever disagreed with a physician over a medical diagnosis or the general handling of a patient? How did you resolve the situation?
What course of action would you take if a patient you are handling is not responding to medication and asks for an increased dosage without the physician's advice?
How do you contribute to a safe, efficient, and quality patient experience as an FPN?
Can you describe yourself as a team player? What are some of the programs you have worked in that have refined this ability?
What have been some of the most rewarding aspects of working as an FPN?
What specific challenges have you encountered at your workplace, and ways you are handling them?
For current and future MSN trainees seeking to become FNPs, what can you advise them regarding how they succeed in the field?
Conclusion
The family nursing practitioner role has a long history, in which advanced nursing practice has played a considerable part and undoubtedly will continue to do so. FNPs are pivotal in enhancing patient safety culture in both care facilities and communities. Through the use of health education and promotion approaches, they continue to contribute to preventive health care positively. With the advent of the digital age, informatics allows for timely and efficient clinical decision-making in family nursing. What remains is the expectation that emerging FPNs will grow the advanced practice by instituting meaningful change in patients' interest.
References
Mackey, A., & Bassendowski, S. (2017). The history of evidence-based practice in nursing education and practice. Journal of Professional Nursing , 33 (1), 51-55.
Östlund, U., Bäckström, B., Saveman, B. I., Lindh, V., & Sundin, K. (2016). A family systems nursing approach for families following a stroke: Family health conversations. Journal of Family Nursing , 22 (2), 148-171.
Yingling, C. T., Cotler, K., & Hughes, T. L. (2017). Building nurses’ capacity to address health inequities: incorporating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health content in a family nurse practitioner programme. Journal of Clinical Nursing , 26 (17-18), 2807-2817.
