Nurse practitioners incorporate clinical knowledge and skills together with a passion for entering into a richly rewarding career. Like any other profession, there have to be certain set roles as well as competencies for nurse practitioners. This paper is an analysis of the various roles and competencies required for a nurse practitioner needing to care for adults and/or families in any given primary setting. It also seeks to align these competencies and roles with my passion for joining this career. The adult or family specialty area requires specialty competencies that would, in a way, emphasize the unique philosophy as well as setting of the practice for this population as well as needs to be served and satisfied (NONPF, 2000). Even though there is a generality in the competencies for every practitioner, there is a variance in the level of competencies as well the roles for the area of adult and /or family. However, these competencies are considered as entry professions of nurse practitioners.
The population that is usually cared for and catered for within the adult setting encompasses a workgroup consisting of the adolescents, young, middle well as old, or she is considered within the scope of a family system constellation. The specific areas where this particular expertise puts emphasis on are disease prevention health promotion as well as the desired style of managing patients with acute and chronic health issues.
The first point of competency is that of promoting health, health protection, and prevention of disease as well as treatment. The practitioner should be able to provide direct health care services to the adult or family. Within this range, the nurse plays the role of synthesizing the theoretical, scientific, and contemporary clinical skills and knowledge and integrates them to help in the assessment and management of health-related issues. The nurse should be able to accurately evaluate the health status of the adult patient by assessing all the aspects of the patients’ health condition (NONPF, 2000). This should be extended with the aim of promoting health, health protection as well as disease prevention. In this role, the nurse is supposed to employ evidence-based clinical practice requirements, and offers act as a guideline in screening activities establishing health promotion requirements, and offers anticipatory guidance as well as counseling addressing issues that are related to the environmental lifestyle together with those of development. While assessing the health status of the patient, the practitioner is supposed to carry out such activities as; obtaining and accurately documenting pertinent health history for the adults within the respective phases of the personal and family life cycle. Carry out screening evaluations for mental health, violence as well as substance abuse (NONPF, 2000). He or she should also be able to assess the effect of illness, infection, and /or injury on the patient, among many other roles that will enable the nurse practitioner to effectively deal with the adult or family patient under his or her care.
The second aspect of competency that is required of nurse practitioners is that of being able to perform an accurate diagnosis of the health status of the adult patient. The process of diagnosis entails the practitioner employing critical thinking differential diagnosis and the integration as well as interpretation of the different kinds of data and /or information received. Within this role, the nurse is able to discriminate among various potential mechanisms that cause disease/illness as well as the signs and symptoms of health issues that are particular with the adult population. He or she should also be able to establish both the typical as well as the atypical manifestation of the generally occurring health problems in adults. The practitioner should be able to differentiate between the signs and symptoms of a disease that acts as pointers to an exacerbation of the chronic health problem.
Every nurse practitioner should be competent enough to carry out the role of planning of care and implementation of treatment (Redman, R et al., 1999). The purposes of this therapeutic intervention are meant to reverse the condition of a patient to a conventionally stable state and to again optimize the health of the patient. Under this circumstance, the nurse is supposed to play the role of stabilizing the patient, limiting both physical and psychological complications as well as optimizing the health potential of the patient. This can be achieved through participation in the development and implementation of promotion of health maintenance as well as disease prevention interview. Similarly, the practitioner should be able to offer age-relevant promotion of health as well as incorporate prevention for health issues related to working risks and exposures within the designed plan of care.
The practitioner needs to exhibit a relatively good relationship with the patient. Within this role, the nurse practitioner is supposed to demonstrate a high level of individual, collegial as well as a collaborative approach that will improve the adult nurse practitioner’s effectiveness of patient health care. The competency required in this area also involves the ability of the nurse that relate to the critical significance of interpersonal transactions to the outcomes of therapeutic patient care.
The practitioner should also be able to perform the role of teacher-coach function. In this setting, the nurse is supposed to be able to impart knowledge that is related to psycho-motor skills to adult patients. The role of coaching encompasses the various skills laded to interpret and individualize therapies by the various practices of advocacy modeling as well as tutoring.
The other role and competency required of adult nurse practitioners are that of professionalism. In this area, the practitioner is supposed to specifically advance the profession whole at the same time enhancing direct care as well as management. He or she is supposed to demonstrate a strong commitment toward the implementation of prevention, as well as the evolution of the role of the practitioner. In addition, the practitioner should also be able to implement the aspects of critical thinking and be able to build a collaborative interdisciplinary relationship that will offer optimal care to adult patients. Equally, the nurse should be able to negotiate and manage health care delivery systems. This can be achieved by handling situations successfully to obtain enhanced health care outcomes for adult patients. The nurse needs too to work in collaboration with other professionals to promote health restoration.
As a leader, the nurse is supposed to ensure and at the same time monitor the quality of health care practice within a given setting. This can be achieved through the processes of consultation, collaboration, continuing education certification as well as evaluation. The nurse also needs to be culturally competent to be able to deal with the needs of the multi-ethnic nature of patients effectively.
In essence, the profession requires an individual with good clinical decision-making skills, client trust, and leadership qualities to bond with patients and colleagues as well as collaborate with them, which are attributes of my strengths. In view of all these aspects, together with the various abilities that I possess, I believe this is the right career for me.
References
National organization of Nurse practitioner Faculties, 2000: Domains and competencies of Nurse practitioner. Washington DC.
Redman, R.W., Lenburg, C.B., Hinton Walker, P., 1999: competency assessment: Methods for development and implementation in Nursing Education.