By Marsha Bozeman
My philosophy of Advanced Practice Nursing is fortified through my faith. Treating each patient and co-worker as an individual of value, is essential. This is the huge driving force of my practice for today and tomorrow. I believe every patient deserves my respect, my compassion, honesty, good clinical judgement, stewardship of resources and education. My belief as a health practitioner is that every patient should be educated properly so that they can understand the “why” of what I have asked them to take or to do. I believe adherence will be better if the patient understands “why”.
The components of an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) are numerous. As an ARNP you are a health promoter, provider, educator, team player, investigator, interrogator, listener, encourager, manager, collaborator, leader, and healer. APN’s serve their community and foster health promotion by example; collaborating with physicians and other specialties to serve the patient’s needs in a fiscally responsible manner.
An Advanced practice nurse must have a minimum of a Masters degree that incorporates hundreds of clinical and didactic hours. In Florida, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner’s are currently limited in their prescriptive authority of controlled substances but they diagnose, treat conditions and collaborate with other specialties and physicians to extend exceptional care to each patient. Studies have demonstrated that patients of nurse practitioners are given comparable care to physicians, but the satisfaction levels are much higher of the patients cared for by the nurse practitioner.
ARNPs continue to lead and educate the community as well as other nurses and health care personnel. Sharing information to improve care is a responsibility of any health care provider, but especially the ARNP. It encourages one to consider education as a top priority. The ARNP thrives on information and research because we as ARNPs must utilize evidence-based practice to give optimum research based care.
Our obligation to society includes setting an example of health promotion, displaying professional conduct, educating our patients and community, continuing our own education, optimizing resources and giving safe and effective care to our patients utilizing evidence based practice guidelines.
Schuttelaar ML; Vermeulen KM; Drukker N; Coenraads PJ. (2009). A randomized controlled trial in children with eczema: nurse practitioner vs. dermatologist. The British Journal Of Dermatology, Vol. 162 (1), pp. 162-70.
Stanley, J. (2005). Advanced Practice Nursing; emphasizing common roles. (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company,
