NR 510 Week 6 Assignment: APN Professional Development Plan Paper
Advanced Practice Nurse Professional Development Plan
Student Name
NR 510:
... [Show More] Leadership & Role of the Advanced Practice Nurse
Advanced Practice Nurse Professional Development Plan
Introduction to the APN Professional Development Plan
APN Scope of Practice
The scope of practice of advanced practice registered nurses can differ from state-to-state. There are many differing rules & regulations for nurse practitioners that are not congruent throughout the states. Throughout this piece, the scope of practice for nurse practitioners practicing in West Virginia will be under review. In 2008, a Consensus Model for Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Regulation was developed through the work of the Advanced Practice Nursing Consensus Work Group & the National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN Committee. This model recognizes four advanced practice roles including certified registered nurse anesthetist, certified nurse-midwife, clinical nurse specialist, & certified nurse practitioner. The model works to endorse licensure of APRNs as independent practitioners within the United States. The Consensus Model for APRN Regulation identifies the four essential elements to APRN regulation as licensure, accreditation, certification, & education (Ward, 2015). In order to become a nurse practitioner, one must first hold licensure as a registered nurse. Registered nurse licensure is a prerequisite to advanced practice registered nurse licensure. In most cases, a nurse will hold both RN & APRN licensures simultaneously. Before obtaining licensure, a prospect nurse practitioner must complete an accredited graduate nursing program in order to earn either their Master’s of Science in Nursing or Doctor of Nursing Practice. The program must either be accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or the U.S. Department of Education (“Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Requirements in West Virginia,” 2017). Throughout the graduate program, the nurse must complete courses focusing on advanced health assessment, advanced pathophysiology, & advanced pharmacology (Ward, 2015). Depending on the specific practice role & intended population focus, program content can slightly vary. Following graduation, the nurse must then seek licensure & national certification. The regulatory agency for nurse practitioners in West Virginia is the Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. The certification examination will be given by the Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses & will be consistent with the APRNs role & population focus (“Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Requirements in West Virginia,” 2017).
The scope of practice of nurse practitioners in the state of West Virginia includes the scope of practice of a registered nurse with additional responsibilities. These additional components include conducting an advanced assessment, ordering & interpreting diagnostic procedures, establishing primary & differential diagnoses, & prescribing, ordering, administering, & dispensing therapeutic measures. The APRN must comply with the st&ards for registered nurses & to the st&ards of the national professional nursing associations that are recognized by the State Board of Nursing (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2012). In West Virginia, nurse practitioners practice under a reduced practice regulatory structure. This means that state practice & licensure laws require the nurse practitioner to obtain a career-long regulated collaborative agreement with another healthcare provider. A collaborative relationship involves the nurse practitioner working with a qualified physician through written agreement to allow the advanced practice nurse to prescribe medications under their authority. This can limit the ability of the nurse practitioner to engage in at least on element of practice (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2017).
Prescriptive authority refers to the ability of the APRN to prescribe medications without collaborating with a physician. There are not yet any nationwide regulations that governs the prescriptive authority of nurse practitioners throughout the United States. Rather, each state independently governs how the nurse practitioner can function (Woten, 2016). In the state of West Virginia, the nurse practitioner must collaborate with a physician in order to prescribe medications. In order to be eligible to prescribe medications, the nurse practitioner must be at least eighteen years of age & must have completed forty-five recent contact hours of coursework in advanced pharmacology & clinical management of drug therapy (“Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Requirements in West Virginia,” 2017). Some classes of medications cannot be prescribed by nurse practitioners in West Virginia including Schedules I & II controlled substances, anti-neoplastic medications, radiopharmaceuticals, & general anesthetics. Schedule III controlled substances that are prescribed by a nurse practitioner shall be limited to a thirty-day supply without refills (“West Virginia Scope of Practice Policy,” 2017). In order to obtain prescription privileges, the nurse practitioner must submit a separate application to the board of nursing for prescription writing privileges & must also provide verification of a collaborative agreement with a physician (“Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Requirements in West Virginia,” 2017).
Personal Assessment
Self-assessment for nurse practitioners is a valuable method to evaluate & strengthen advanced practice. Benner’s Novice to Expert Model is a useful self-assessment tool for all healthcare professionals. Benner’s Model is designed to emphasize the skill acquisition of healthcare professionals. The model embodies five phases of professional practice from novice to expert (Benner, 2001). Ongoing experience of the nurse practitioner changes an individual’s perception of situations. When beginning my career as a nurse practitioner, I will be starting out at the novice level of practice. It can take time & experience to transition into further levels of practice as a new advanced practice nurse. As a future nurse practitioner, I want to mainly focus on providing excellent patient care to each patient I treat. I want to further develop my advanced assessment skills in order to properly & efficiently assess, diagnose, & treat my patients. I also hope to further my clinical pharmacology education regarding certain antibiotics & other medications that I will be prescribing. I very much look forward to being able to treat my patients while collaborating with a physician. While West Virginia’s APRN regulations may be restrictive, I believe it will be beneficial to work closely with a physician as a new nurse practitioner. This will help me learn certain methods & feel more secure about my decisions as a novice practitioner. The thing I fear most about my new role is the possibility of significant error. Error in the healthcare environment is very serious, as patients’ lives & well-beings are at stake. While I already have this responsibility as a registered nurse, I believe there is more significant responsibility as an APRN. In order to counteract this, I plan to use evidence-based practice to treat my patients & be sure to further collaborate with the physician or other providers when I am unsure of a situation. I hope to gain many things from my new experience as a nurse practitioner. For example, I hope to be able to gain the trust & validity from my patients. I also hope to be able to gain the confidence to someday independently treat patients without the collaboration of a physician, pending legislative changes.
Adapting to the new role of a nurse practitioner will be stressful & trying. In order to cope with stress, I will need to have methods to effectively manage & work through stressful situations. My most often used coping mechanism is physical activity. I believe exercise is the most powerful stress reliever in my life. As a new APRN, I will be sure to make time in my busy schedule to incorporate exercise & physical activity. Another stress coping mechanism I often utilize is music therapy. I find listening to relaxing music allows me to calm down & manage my stress more effectively. Finally, I also manage stress by talking it out with somebody I am close with. I feel that my friends & family are very effective in helping me manage my stress. They have helped me throughout nursing school & continue to help me throughout graduate school, as well.
As a new nurse practitioner, I have many goals to achieve throughout my first year of practice. During my first month of practice, I simply hope to become comfortable in my practice setting & with my fellow coworkers. I believe developing a sound relationship with my collaborative physician will be very important to my success. Throughout my second & third months of work, I hope to continue to strengthen my relationships with my coworkers & patients. I hope to gain the trust of my patients & gain the reputation as a qualified & educated practitioner throughout my first year as a novice nurse practitioner.
When completing self-assessments of your practice, it is important to be aware of your strengths & weaknesses as a practitioner. I believe my most significant strength as a practitioner will be my people-skills & my ability to communicate with my patients & coworkers. I think this is especially beneficial throughout patient assessments to gather all of the important information needed for the focused assessment. Proper communication skills are absolutely necessary when collaborating with other providers & delegating tasks to other professionals. Lapses in communication can directly or indirectly cause harm to the patient. I believe my biggest weakness as a new practitioner will be my slight lack of confidence. I feel that I may be too quick to double-check everything with the physician. However, this will not be appropriate as a nurse practitioner. I hope to overcome this weakness & become more confident as a practitioner as I continue my education.
Networking & Marketing Strategies
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners is a full-service national professional organization for nurse practitioners of all specialties. The AANP provides members with continuing education, up-to-date news regarding important healthcare topics, advocacy at both the state & national level, & other resources to promote professional growth. The AANP contains a Nurse Practitioner Job Center to assist practitioners with finding employment. They allow the practitioner to find jobs based on location, specialty, & job setting. The organization also holds career fairs to further assist practitioners (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2017).
The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Congress of West Virginia is a state-based organization that also assists nurses & nurse practitioners with finding employment. The APRN Congress works under the West Virginia Nurses Association & the American Nurses Association to advocate for nurse practitioners of West Virginia. Their web page contains a career center link to assist practitioners in employment opportunities (West Virginia Nurses Association, 2018).
One major marketing strategy for the nurse practitioner is to promote communication techniques & strategies. The Institute of Medicine emphasizes the importance of the nurses’ ability to master the use of communication technology tools in order to collaborate & support the continuity of care. These skills help promote the overall health of the nation. Promoting & utilizing telehealth can also help provide care to patients in more rural areas who do not have immediate access to healthcare providers (Gray & Rutledge, 2014). By marketing technology & communication skills, the nurse practitioner will be able to prove their value in healthcare settings & rural environments, as well.
One networking strategy that is useful for nurse practitioners is becoming involved within professional organizations. Not only do professional organizations advocate for the APRN professions, but they also give practitioners the opportunity to interact with & network with other practitioners throughout the nation. This provides future & current nurse practitioners with the ability to share their thoughts & receive support from other professionals in their field throughout the organization. Professional social networking can also be beneficial for practitioners if used appropriately.
Conclusion
1. Write your Curriculum Vitae (CV). Refer to the template on pages 772-773 in DeNisco & Barker (2015). Your CV should not exceed 2 pages in length.
2. When concluding the paper, summarize important aspects of the APN professional development plan.
References
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Requirements in West Virginia. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.nursinglicensure.org/np-state/west-virginia-nurse-practitioner.html#education
American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2017). State Practice Environment. Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/legislation-regulation/state-legislation/state-practice-environment#west-virginia
Benner, P. (2001). From Novice to Expert: Excellence & power in clinical nursing practice.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health.
Gray, D., & Rutledge, C. (2014). Using new communication technologies: An educational strategy fostering collaboration & telehealth skills in nurse practitioners. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 10(10), 840-844. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2014.06.018
National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2012). APRN Model Act & Rules. Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/2012_APRN_Model_&_Rules.pdf
Ward, C. (2015). It's time to recognize APRN practice nationally. Medsurg Nursing, 24(4), 210-211. Retrieved from https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mdc&AN=26434031&site=eds-live&scope=site
West Virginia Nurses Association. (2018). APRN Congress. Retrieved from http://www.wvnurses.org/Main-Menu-Category/APRN-Congress
West Virginia Scope of Practice Policy: State Profile. (2017). Retrieved from http://scopeofpracticepolicy.org/states/wv/#tab-nurse-practitioners
Woten, M. (2016). Advanced Nursing Practice & Prescriptive Authority. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=T904682&site=eds-live&scope=site [Show Less]