Nurse Practitioner
Future Of The Nurse Practitioner
Though the NP role has proliferated and formalized, there is still some residual anxiety in both the nursing and the medical communities as to its exact benefits and responsibilities. Is the NP abdicating the role of the nurse, or is the NP a strategy to retain skilled nurses within the profession while providing improved care to specific patient populations and reducing costs? Is the NP position taking jobs from physicians because NPs are less costly, thus affecting physicians' employment opportunities? Regardless, as the role continues to be tested with different populations, it is being heralded as an appropriate role for registered nurses in the care and treatment of specific patient populations within a collaborative and collegial relationship with physicians and other health care professionals.
DEBORAH A. VANDEWATER
See also GERIATRIC MEDICINE; GERONTOLOGICAL NURSING.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Canadian Nurses Association. "Out in Front— Advanced Nursing Practice." Nursing Now: Issues and Trends in Canadian Nursing 2 (1997): 1–4.
DUKE, S. The Function of the Expanded Role Nurse in a Reforming Health Care System. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Dalhousie University School of Nursing, 1998.
HUCH, M. H. "Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants: Are They the Same?" Nursing Science Quarterly 5, no. 2 (summer 1992): 52–53.
MUNDINGER, M. O. "Advanced-Practice Nursing—Good Medicine for Physicians?" New England Journal of Medicine 330 (1994): 211–214.
NAYLOR, M. D.; BROOTEN, D.; CAMPBELL, R.; JACOBSEN, B. S.; MEZEY, M. D.; PAULY, M. V.; and SCHWARTZ, J. S. "Comprehensive Discharge Planning and Home Follow-up of Hospitalized Elders: A Randomized Clinical Trial." Journal of the American Medical Association 281 (1999): 613–620.
PINELLI, J. M. "The Clinical Nurse Specialist/ Nurse Practitioner: Oxymoron or Match Made in Heaven?" Canadian Journal of Nursing Administration 10 (1997): 85–110.
Registered Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. Guidelines for Shared Competencies and Delegated Medical Functions. Halifax, Nova Scotia: RNANS, 1997.
RUIZ, B. A.; TABLOSKI, P. A.; and FRAZIER, S. M. "The Role of Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses in Geriatric Care." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 43 (1995): 1062–1064.
Additional topics
Medicine EncyclopediaAging Healthy - Part 3Nurse Practitioner - Beginnings, Education And Licensure Requirements, Current Roles And Functions, Future Of The Nurse Practitioner