Lee High School

How do Nurse Practitioners provide effective services to children and adults?

Nurse Practitioner

Cristal Fernandez

Senior Capstone

J. Snyder

April 13, 2017

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Cristal Fernandez

J. Snyder

Senior Capstone

April 13, 2017

Nurse Practitioner

Currently there is 174,606 advanced practice nurses in the United States. Nurse

practitioners job growth increased about 34% and is still increasing around the world since 2012.

NPs are advanced registered nurses, they have more advanced knowledge and had to take an

advanced clinical practice study course to be where theyre at. Nurse practitioners provide

effective services to children and adults by enforcing laws and policies by giving quality

care and by offering more than just physical care.

Certain countries have state laws that still restrict nurses from doing training all on their

own. These laws are made to make sure nurse practitioners or any other nurses not get too ahead

of themselves and risk the life of a patient or risk losing their job. State laws vary widely in the

level of physician oversight required for nurse practitioners, with some states allowing NPs to

practice independently, while others limit NPs' authority to diagnose, treat and prescribe

medications to patients without supervision. (Yee). Arkansas, Indiana, and Michigan are one of

the few states that doesnt restrict what services NPs can do. In those states they are allowed to

diagnose patients on their own but sometimes will need the supervision, that doesnt mean NPs

can do whatever they please but have more rights than others. Georgia is known as one of the

states that restricts what nurses can do, they need to be supervised at all times and cant diagnose

patients on their own. The NP role has developed and expanded; (Barnett). Since the role of
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NPs began in 1965 it expanded and developed in many other countries as well. Not only did it

improve technology wise but also improved on their services with patients.

Quality care is an important factor to become a nurse practitioner because being in charge

of a patients life means to do all check ups the correct way and if having the time, do everything

twice to make sure everything is correct. NPs ordered slightly more lab tests than did

physicians; (Iowa Nurse Reporter). Nurse practitioners are more cautious than physicians and

that shows quality care and the importance of the patient. Some NPs even do lab tests more than

once or twice to make sure everything is correct. Nurse practitioners have demonstrated for

decades that they can provide quality, cost-effective primary care. (Barnett). As years pass

records show that the quality care NPs show has improved and they are known to give good

quality care. The quality care NPs give constantly improve and will continue to do so for the

good of the patients.

Nurse practitioners are trained to show more than just physical care because itll show the

patient that they can trust their nurse. They are trained to talk and be able to give advice to their

patients and their family, to be there for them and to be patient. Nurse practitioners serve as

primary, acute and specialty care providers across the country. (PR Newswire). Primary care is

the most basic care, its just for getting a simple treatment for a small incident. Acute care is

more severe than primary care because it is for getting short term treatment for an illness or an

emergency medical condition. Specialty care is medical practice, this is where they decide on

what specialty they decide to study for. There is several different type of nurse practitioners,

some are for mental care, emotional care, physical care or some are even for counselling. All

nurses are trained to be careful on what they say to their patients or how to break down news to
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them, they are supposed to be seen as friends by their patients. NPs spent more time with

patients, addressed health promotion more frequently, and made more referrals than physicians.

Their patients also had fewer hospitalizations. (Iowa Nurse Reporter). Showing more than just

physical care and rechecking their health will help the patients out and decrease the amount of

times they need to return to the hospital. The patients arent only adults but also kids, having a

kid as a patient is more difficult to deal with because kids are frightened most of the time. Its

important as a nurse to spend a lot of time with the patient, get to know them and be able to gain

trust because itll make the patient feel safe, connected and in good hands.

In order for a nurse practitioner to provide effective services to children and adults they

are expected to know the laws, policies and roles, show more than just physical care, and quality

care. All three of these concepts are important because itll show what a good and prepared nurse

does. Knowing the limit of what a nurse can do is important because passing the limit is putting a

patient in danger and putting the job as a nurse at risk. Doing more than just one of the same lab

test is important also because sometimes lab tests can read incorrectly or not catch the right

results. The most important concept is to show more than just physical care so the patient can

feel connected, safe and in good hands so they dont be in the hospital having negative thoughts.
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Works Cited

1) Barnett,JenniferS."Anemergingrolefornursepractitioners--preoperativeassessment."AORN
Journal,Nov.2005,p.825+.AcademicOneFile,
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191&asid=84d185503b61c1674fc462788533ba90.Accessed30Mar.2017.
2) Hooker,RoderickS.,andAshleyN.Muchow."Modifyingstatelawsfornursepractitionersand

physicianassistantscanreducecostofmedicalservices."NursingEconomics,Mar.-Apr.2015,p.88+.

AcademicOneFile,

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asid=a0883fcb0bdedcbb0c7853191450c544.Accessed10Apr.2017.

3) Yee,Tracy,etal."Primarycareworkforceshortages:Nursepractitionerscope-of-practicelawsand

paymentpolicies."GeorgiaNursing,May-July2013,p.14.AcademicOneFile,

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asid=e20fdf62d38468c93b4e8560cd1d75bd.Accessed12Apr.2017.

4) "Thecosteffectivenessofnursepractitionercare."IowaNurseReporter,Dec.2012,p.10+.
AcademicOneFile,
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612&asid=fbb3a01ed6bdbb986610b0674cd3a2c2.Accessed12Apr.2017.
5) "NursePractitionersUrgeCongressToImproveHealthCareAccess."PRNewswire,21Mar.
2016.AcademicOneFile,
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465&asid=8cc9dce31a5220ccaba4c42ea209e775.Accessed12Apr.2017.