Immersion Partnerships for Health Care Reform

The concepts of advanced nursing practice have been in existence since the middle of the 20th century (Drew, 2014). The advanced practice focuses on improving patient care competencies, professional practices, and related health care policies by acquiring an advanced education level in the field. The nurses who work in advanced nursing practice are referred to as Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs). Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nurses (PMH-APNs) acquire skills, knowledge, and abilities to assist in mental health issues. APN responsibilities and roles have been implemented in many countries; many European countries are still struggling with implementing the APN (Blum et al., 2018). German-speaking countries also follow suit in close distance. This paper has examined ANPs' reform synthesis of AP role history and evolution, role differentiation, shared competencies, and professional practice issues related to the health care policy.

Literature Review

Historically advancement in nursing practiced has been documented in the nursing literature. The roles of the nurse practitioners were developed in the US during the 1960s. According to Marsden et al. (2003), increased specialization of the Nursing Practitioner’s’ roles led to increased medical specialization. In the UK, the functions of nurse practitioners came into play in the mid-1980s. From the review of most of the literature, one may realize that there are no defined concepts followed by the Advanced Nursing Practice. Ketefian et al. (2001) formed a list of the factors that have led to the diversification of roles of ANPs in the US. Social, political, health needs in the society, demand, supply, healthcare workforce, government policy, and support, in development of nursing education, inter-professional collaboration and economic factors have given rise to the complexity and introduction of several advanced nursing roles within the industry.

Education framework

As the roles of ANPs continue to widen the nurse educators need to focus on future education for nurses. The advancement of nurses' knowledge needs to be systematic and prepare the nurses to work in a multidisciplinary setup. Education curriculum should be developed in such a way as to cover the primary nurses' needs and competence in performing their duties. Thus an innovative curriculum should be designed.

ANPs can get substantial educational programs internationally. It has been established by the international nursing network that the minimum entry for an ANP is a master's in nursing. The master's degree programs offered for ANPS, as outlined by Hamric et al. (2000) and Bickley & Szilagyi (2003), are pathology, pharmacotherapy, pharmacology, advanced nursing practice, physiology, advanced physical assessment skills, leadership, research, case management, and quality improvement. The key competencies that the ANPs should possess are expert clinical practice, coaching and guidance skills, clinical and professional leadership, consultation, and ethical decision-making skills. Hickey et al. (2000) unearthed that emerging roles have increased the number of mandatory competencies for the ANPs to thrive in their calling.

Professional Practice Issues

During this development of the ANPs, some challenges are faced in this process. One of the challenges is the issue of change, where there are several changes in the medical field, which makes it hard to meet the clients' demands. The second challenge to the ANPs is to establish the maximum discussion platforms that discuss health matters to reduce health care costs and cut down health-related complications. The third challenge is medication management for the practitioners. Woods (1997) states that the prescriptive authority should regulate the client base's medication prescription.

Conclusion

Advanced Nursing Practice is an exact career pathway for the nurses that need nurses who desire to remain within the clinical field. The advanced nursing roles' widening has happened because of the broadened client need from the local to international levels. This paper has examined ANPs' reform synthesis of AP role history and evolution, role differentiation, shared competencies, and professional practice issues related to the health care policy. In essence, nurses who have endeavored to pursue ANP will also be ready for the challenges that lay ahead of them.

References

• Drew, B.L., 2014. The evolution of the role of the psychiatric mental health advanced practice registered nurse in the United States. Arch. Psychiatr. Nurs. 28 (5), 298– 300. doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2014.07.002.
• Blum, K., Löffert, S., Offermanns, M., Steffen, P., 2018. Psychiatrie-Barometer. Umfrage 2017/2018. Deutsches Krankenhausinstitut. https://www.dki.de/sites/ default/files/2019-01/psychiatrie_barometer_2017_2018_final.pdf (accessed 17 July 2020).
• Marsden J, Dolan B & Holt L (2003) Nurse practitioner practice and deployment: electronic mail Delphi study. Journal of Advanced Nursing 43, 595–605.
• Hamric A, Spross J & Hanson C (2000) Advanced Nursing Practice. An Integrative Approach, 2nd edn. WB Saunders, London.
• Hamric A, Spross J & Hanson C (2000) Advanced Nursing Practice. An Integrative Approach, 2nd edn. WB Saunders, London.
• Woods L (1997) Conceptualising advanced nursing practice: curriculum issues to consider in the educational preparation of advanced practice nurses in the UK. Journal of Advanced Nursing 25, 820–828