A Global Review of Advanced Practice Nursing in the Emergency Department.

As demands in the way of healthcare delivery increase, nurse practitioners have become essential components in optimizing access to healthcare and improving outcomes around the globe. The authors recognize the vital role nurse practitioners play globally and that education, practice, and credentialing differ significantly across countries. Many countries have a wide variation in educational requirements, resulting in a lack of adequate advanced practice nursing training and regulation of practice.

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board announces changes in the recertification program.

The vision of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB) is that nurse practitioners (NPs) meet the highest standards of excellence and competence to support quality care and optimal health outcomes. The highest standards of excellence require monitoring and improving our certification and recertification programs. After conducting a thorough review of the relevant literature and a series of surveys of our certificants, changes were made to the AANPCB recertification requirements that are consistent with continued competency.

Analysis of nurse practitioner practice in US emergency departments: Evidence supporting educational preparation, credentialing, scope of practice, and outcomes.

The nurse practitioner (NP) role within emergency care has grown in recent years and now there are an estimated 25,000 NPs employed in diverse emergency care settings. Despite this significant growth and expansion of the NP within emergency care areas, challenges exist. In addition to the pervasive confusion regarding the NP role in emergency care, data and statistics detailing characteristics and outcomes of NP practice in emergency care are either lacking or misrepresented.

Consideration of the emergency nurse practitioner as a population within the APRN Consensus Model: A SWOT analysis.

After adoption of the 2008 Consensus Model for Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Regulation, evolution of the nurse practitioner (NP) role and emergency NP (ENP) specialty has outpaced regulatory standards. Lack of uniformity among regulators, health insurance providers, and employers in acknowledging the ENP specialty has created barriers to practice and access to care. This article serves to identify potential outcomes if the ENP specialty was transitioned to a population within the Consensus Model of Regulation.

Visual analysis of global comparative mapping of the practice domains of the nurse practitioner/advanced practice nursing role in respondent countries.

Background: Internationally, there is increasing demand for nurse practitioner (NP) and advanced practice nursing (APN) roles; however, high variability exists in how NP/APN roles are defined and understood.

Purpose: The aim of this research was to improve our understanding of how the NP/APN is defined globally by: 1) examining role definitions, competencies, and standards of practice for advanced practice nurses internationally; 2) describing from a global perspective the core concepts and common features of NP/APN associated with practice domains; and 3) exploring the utility of text mining and visual analytics in identifying the clustered core concepts common to NP/APN roles organized around the five advanced practice domains of the Strong Advanced Practice Model.

Methods: This article describes the findings of a secondary analysis of an international NP/APN competency mapping project, using innovative text mining and visual analysis techniques to reexamine and summarize the NP/APN role in 19 countries from Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America.

Embracing the future for emergency nurse practitioners and specialty practice: Implications for research, clinical practice, education, and health policy.

The emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) specialty has grown rapidly, responding and adapting to changes within emergency care. Designation and advancement of nurse practitioner (NP) specialties follows a systematic process as defined by the profession. This includes establishment of scope and standards of practice, educational standards, and policy initiatives to ensure quality and safety within the profession.

Beyond competencies: Practice standards for emergency nurse practitioners-A model for specialty care clinicians, educators, and employers.

Background/purpose: The growth of advanced practice nursing specialties requires additional expertise for practice that goes beyond entry-level competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities. A practice standards model for specialty nurse practitioners (PSMSNPs) is introduced that differentiates entry-to-practice population foci competencies from advanced specialty practice standards.

Objectives: (a) Differentiate competencies and practice standards in context to specialty NPs using the emergency specialty as the exemplar, (b) articulate the process to develop the PSMSNP that evolved from an evidence-based practice analysis of NPs working in emergency care, (c) apply the PSMSNP for adaptation to other specialties, and (d) provide implications for the utilization of the PSMSNP by educators, clinicians, and employers.

Emergency nurse practitioner practice analysis: Report and implications of the findings.

Background And Purpose: A practice analysis of nurse practitioners (NPs) working in emergency care was undertaken to define their job tasks and develop a specialty certification by examination.

Method: In phase I, clinical experts created a qualitative description of domains of practice, tasks performed, knowledge required, and procedures performed by NPs in emergency care. Phase II involved validating the qualitative description through a national survey (N = 474) of emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs).

Appraisal of the emergency nurse practitioner specialty role.

The role of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) has evolved as a specialty and is appreciated within the context of the 2008 Consensus Model document (APRN Consensus Work Group & National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN Advisory Committee, 2008). The first in a series of five articles, this article describes the appraisal of the ENP role as well as the specialty and the distinctive role of the ENP. The second article, Emergency Nurse Practitioner Practice Analysis: Report and Implications of the Findings, presents research to support the scientific basis of emergency specialty practice and content validity for a national certification program.

Issues that impact type-2 diabetes self-management in rural communities.

Purpose: To evaluate and synthesize the evidence related to issues that impact type-2 diabetes self-management in rural communities.

Data Sources: A systematic review of the literature from 2008 to 2013 was conducted using the following health science databases: CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and OVID. Other databases searched included the clearinghouses of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC); National Rural Health Association (NRHA), State Offices of Rural Health (SORH), and Rural Health Research & Policy Centers (RHRPC).

Myasthenia gravis: diagnosis and treatment.

Purpose: To provide information about myasthenia gravis (MG), including pathophysiology, differential diagnosis, treatments, diagnostic work up, patient teaching, and diagnostic algorithms for ptosis and weakness related to MG.

Data: Clinical and research journal articles, medical textbooks, and a patient with MG.

Conclusions: Myasthenia Gravis is a very complex disease with many different signs and symptoms, which may be quite noticeable or vague.

Literacy in the health care system: a study on open heart surgery patients.

Purpose: To determine if patients recovering from open heart surgery were able to read and understand written discharge instructions and further to analyze the level of difficulty of standard discharge instructions and consent forms for open heart surgery.

Data Sources: After screening for visual acuity and efficiency, literacy was assessed with the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine test (REALM) and comprehension was tested by a post-test of five questions based on the discharge instructions. Flesch-Kincaid scores were calculated on four sets of standard written discharge instructions and consent forms.