Advanced practice nursing advanced

81FSUseminole · Jan 13, 2009

OMG, is this what i get to look forward to in grad school? why can't the focus solely be on medicine and treating the patients holistically? i mean, seems like too much time is spent researching/writing insignificant things that will have no impact on our professional careers.

anyways, to answer your question: advanced nursing is advanced in the sense you have gone back to school to "advance" your knowledge in providing expert, cost effective care for your patients and their families. giving you greater responsibility and autonomy.

hope this helps :-D

Trauma Columnist · Jan 13, 2009

Things that make APN practice "advanced:"

1. Additional responsibilities such as assessting, treating, prescribing.

2. Frequently, the buck stops with the APN so you have a higher duty to care for the pt.

3. Advanced role as a role model.

jjjoy, LPN · Jan 13, 2009

Personally, I tend to think all acute care nursing is "advanced." Basic nursing includes things like patient positioning, preventing skin breakdown, assisting with ADLs, etc. Nursing assistants are carrying out nursing care, aren't they? And we "nurse" our loved ones when they are ill... making sure that they eat, take their medications, help them with dressing changes. I would call all of that "basic" nursing care.

So then, I'd call caring for an acutely ill patient "advanced" nursing care. It takes more advanced assessment skills, more advanced technical skills, and more advanced knowledge to provide nursing care to more acutely ill patients.

If a nurse goes on to be a clinical consultant/educator/leader for other nurses, I don't see that as advanced nursing. It's consulting, educating and leading.

If a nurse gets further training so as to have diagnostic and prescriptive rights, I don't see that as advanced nursing either. It's diagnosing medical conditions and prescribing medical treatments, which by most definitions isn't considered "nursing."

Some kinds of acute care clinical nurse specialists I might concede practice "advanced" nursing as compared to the average clinical nurse.

I'm sure that's NOT what your instructor is looking for; but food for thought anyway!

allnurses Guide · Jan 14, 2009

You're doing the assignment - what do YOU think? Perhaps people can have some input if you give us your ideas first..

patrick1rn, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 14, 2009

OMG, is this what i get to look forward to in grad school? why can't the focus solely be on medicine and treating the patients holistically? i mean, seems like too much time is spent researching/writing insignificant things that will have no impact on our professional careers.
anyways, to answer your question: advanced nursing is advanced in the sense you have gone back to school to "advance" your knowledge in providing expert, cost effective care for your patients and their families. giving you greater responsibility and autonomy.
hope this helps :-D

This must be for a NP Roles and Issues class I assume. I am a recent FNP graduate. Believe me, you will spend most of your time on disease process, treatments, etc and also writting a lot of papers on these subjects.

I had a teacher tell me that in reality, all the nursing theory etc and etc is great, but when it comes down to it, you have to know what is wrong with your patient and know how your going to treat it. She told me that although NP school calls it advanced nursing practice, in reality you are practicing medicine under the auspices of nursing. The scope of practice may be different, but the standard of care is the same.

karnavati · Jan 17, 2009

Thank you all for the input, I think advance practice nursing is increased autonomy, advancement of clinical practice knowledge, skill development and attainment of expertise.

Please continue giving your valuable input to it.

Karnavati

zenman · Jan 18, 2009

Advanced practice is where you learn that the basics and the simple things work the best.