Abstract
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."

Tags:healthcare, hospital, physician, resources, tasks

Abstract
The paper focuses on the communications aspects of an advanced practice nurse (APN). The paper relates that experience in oral and written communication in the clinical setting is essential. The paper further relates that the APN's expanded role as researcher, planner, policy-maker, educator, leader and collaborator testify to the greater ethical responsibilities APNs share towards patients, colleagues and the populations they affect through their decisions. The paper asserts that the APN is not only a resource for knowledge concerning disease and how it affects individuals, but a resource for helping patients seek answers for themselves.

From the Paper
"The purpose of this report is to expound on the communications aspects of an advanced practice nurse (APN). APNs can be found most commonly within the hospital setting but can also be found within the academe or in research. Experience in oral and written communication in the clinical setting is essential. Their expanded roles as researcher, planner, policy-maker, educator, leader and collaborator testify to the greater ethical responsibilities they share towards patients, colleagues and the populations they affect through their decisions."

Tags:job, communications, nursing

Abstract
This paper explains that the advanced practical nurse (APN) program has several critical elements including the evolution of the student's communication skills, the ability to think critically and an understanding of the different roles of the APN. Next. the author underscores that communications skills include not only verbal and written expression but also the ability to interact and document information using the computer. The paper relates that she had to learn to be an educator in addition to being a caregiver and dispenser of medical knowledge.

Table of Contents:
Communication Skills: Evolution
Verbal Expression
Written Expression
Ability to Interact and Document Information via the Computer
Critical Thinking Skills
Different Roles for the Advanced Practical Nurse (APN)
Advocacy for the Client and Nursing Based on Professional Values
Three Professional Goals

From the Paper
"Perhaps the most important thing I have learned from becoming an Advanced Practical Nurse (APN) is that communication is essential to the nursing profession. It is not enough to know what is right - a nurse must effectively communicate with the patient, the patient's caregiver, and/or the other healthcare providers for that patient. The nurse must be technically fluent in the language of the medical profession, yet also be able to translate jargon into layperson's terms."

Tags:jargon empowerment, paper trail, pre-diabetic patients, holistic discipline

Abstract
The paper reveals that unfortunately, the reality in communities across the nation is that obesity has grown into an epidemic. The paper discusses how Healthy People 2010 has developed Leading Health Indicators to be used in communities nationally to measure the health of citizens and ultimate measure the health of communities.

From the Paper
""There are so many overweight children that perceptions are getting distorted about what's normal and healthy. . . . The consequences of childhood obesity," he said, "are too great to ignore" (Kantor, 2007). -----Dr. Ludwig of Children's Hospital, Boston. How can the APN influence communities on the issue of obesity? Unfortunately, the reality in communities across the nation is that obesity has grown into an epidemic. Health People 2010 has developed Leading Health Indicators to be used in communities nationally to measure the health of citizens and ultimate measure the health of communities."

Tags:obesity, education, apn

Abstract
The paper defines the varied and broad role of the advanced practice nurse (APN) and explores the impact of sociopolitical, legal and economic factors on this role. The paper looks at the period before 1950, between 1950 and 1969 and between 1960 and 1979. The paper shows how the APN professions are clearly continuing to evolve to better meet the needs of the communities in which such care providers work. The paper believes that the roles and advances of APNs will likely continue to demonstrate remarkable evolution as needs and changes occur across the nation and the world.

Outline:
Introduction
Influence of Sociopolitical, Economic and Legal Factors

From the Paper
"The trend toward the utilization of Advanced Practice Nurses has been one that has encompassed the past fifty plus years of medical care, ethic and standards. APNs are characterized as relatively autonomous health care providers who have advanced practice education and rights in accordance with the region, where they practice health care. These individuals care many different titles inclusive of the role they play in the health care delivery team and include Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Anesthetists and other general and specialty care providers who oversee patient care in the community as well as in institutions and often care rights and credentials to write prescriptions and or give care directives that are similar to the rights of Physicians or Physician's Assistants."

Tags:primary, care, specialities, training, standards

Abstract
The paper reveals that Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is a progressive illness that is continually costing the U.S. health care system billions of dollars yearly in unnecessary admissions. The paper explores how the advanced practice nurse (APN) or nurse practitioner can play a potentially vital role in prevention of these cost overruns. The paper argues that APNs can intervene through behavioral interventions, patient education and frequent follow-up apart from medical treatment and most importantly, through forging a strong therapeutic alliance. The paper relates that APNs will continue to assert their increasingly important role in primary care and in outcomes of diseases such as heart failure.

From the Paper
"Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is a progressive illness where the heart loses the capacity to circulate blood to adequately perfuse peripheral organ systems. The term has been revised because not all patients with heart failure are congested at the time of diagnosis (Hunt, Baker, Chin, Cinquegrani, Feldman, Francis et al, 2001). CHF affects nearly 5 million people in the U.S. alone, mostly the elderly population with 550,000 new cases being diagnosed yearly and is the attributable morbidity in more than 287,000 deaths (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2006)."

Tags:advanced, practice, nursing

Abstract
This paper contrasts outcomes management with outcomes research and defines an ideal outcome indicator. The paper also contrasts process and outcome indicators and offers examples, and then defines and operationalizes the three stages of an outcome evaluation plan. Finally, the paper discusses the purpose and impact of national comparative performance and benchmarking data resources on performance and outcome evaluation.

From the Paper
"Outcomes management deals with the relationship between health care processes and patient outcomes. Outcomes research attempts to understand the end results of specific health care practices and interventions. It is the foundation upon which guidelines for practice are based as well as research pertaining to the outcome of the implementation of these guidelines. While outcomes research is concerned with questions pertaining to the quality of life of patients, their mortality, and changes in their ability to function, outcomes management pertains to the more immediate ramifications of decisions made on a patient-to-patient level. Advance practice nursing..."

Tags:standards, outcomes, nursing

Abstract
The paper explores some of the trends that have created the role of advanced practice nurses (APNs) in psychiatric care and focuses on the autonomous role that nurse practitioners are sometimes required to play. The paper discusses how the new authority of autonomy has to to be balanced with the core values of the nurturing nurse-patient relationship.

From the Paper
"Recent trends in medical care have brought the adult nurse practitioner into a position of not only support but primary care of psychiatric as well as other patients. The role of the adult nurse practitioner in the specialty of psychiatric care generates significant opportunity and can produce significant conflicts as traditional general practitioner roles are transcended, requiring additional training and specialized understanding of this new avenue of specialization. This work will address the literature surrounding this relatively new role, some of the trends that have created it and specifically the autonomous role that nurse practitioners are sometimes required to play, with the inclusion of legislation and authority to do so."

Tags:relationship, interaction, autonomy, nurture

Abstract
The paper discusses how the Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) profession benefits more than other professions from the relative scarcity of trained APN's, and the need to defend their role and profession within the healthcare profession in general. This paper covers the reasons for APN's increasing power in the workplace, their response with collective action, and the outlook for collective action in the future within the universe of APN professions. The paper explains that APN's concerns range across a large number of issues, but especially focus on four main areas: - The level of care for patients is in danger as more demands are put on APN's and there are relatively fewer to carry out the tasks in the time available. - There is a concern about the working hours and forced overtime required in many hospital settings. - There is a real concern about the level of on-going training available as new techniques, new devices and new methods of treatment are introduced in the workplace. - There are a number of workplace-related concerns specific to the profession; these include concerns about infection (and what happens to a nurse who contracts HIV, for example), issues of status and priority with other healthcare professionals, and working conditions in general.

From the Paper
"The Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) profession benefits more than other professions from the relative scarcity of trained APN's, and the need to defend their role and profession within the healthcare profession in general. This paper will cover the reasons for APN's increasing power in the workplace, their response with collective action, and the outlook for collective action in the future within the universe of APN professions. The APN mirrors the physician population in its trends towards specialization, which accelerated in the 1990's years (as cited by Brown, 1996, p.1). As APN's took on increasing responsibility and health care..."

Tags:nurses, apn, bargaining

Abstract
This paper discusses the different competencies of an advanced practice nurse (APN) and how they are closely related to each other. The paper discusses direct care by the APN, as well as teaching and coaching. It discusses how these competencies have a direct impact on patient care. It also looks at how they impact the development of non-clinical competencies.

From the Paper
"While there are distinct advantages to the DNP program, there are disadvantages to its widespread implementation and possibly surpassing the masters in science in nursing (MSN) as the terminal degree. There is the possibility, as with all programs at the advanced degree level, that curriculum content may be in-depth in some areas while neglected in others. Another disadvantage is that, as an entry-level degree, DNP candidates may not possess adequate prior clinical experience that the APN candidate possesses, as it was also intended to attract individuals with non-nursing backgrounds. As a rigorous program that seeks to help candidates achieve end competencies, the clinically inexperienced DNP candidate may encounter "practical" knowledge gaps that may have to be covered by a longer course length."

Tags:curriculum, coaching, clinical