The Advance Practice Nurse (APN)

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the acute care nurse practitioner (APN) performs four roles: educator, researcher, clinician, and consultant/manager. The APN's role as consultant/manager is perhaps one of the most important of the four because this role helps to improve the use of existing scarce resources. The author points out that, in the acute care setting, the APN management role includes taking histories, conducting physical examinations, ordering, performing and interpreting appropriate diagnostic and laboratory tests, prescribing pharmacological agents, treatments, and non-pharmacological therapies for the management of the conditions, which they diagnose. The paper stresses that the structure of the acute care APN's role will depend upon the collaborative agreement with physicians and other members of the acute care team and organizational setting.

Table of Contents
Introduction
The Role as Consultant/Manager in an Acute Care Setting Implementation of APNs in Acute Care Settings
Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The research also shows that once an APN has started the implementation process, it is vitally important to continue to solicit timely feedback from other staff members, patients and management. This feedback will help solidify productive interpersonal relationships and the overall health of the acute care operation. The experts on organizational change say that staff members must feel comfortable in providing feedback to their managers, and likewise, supervisors must learn how to share their perceptions of individual job performance in an accurate, clear and honest manner. Managers at all levels can facilitate the communication process in their organizations by ensuring that the process is one in which people are able to provide and receive feedback in an open, honest and constructive manner."

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