The Importance Of The Advanced Practice Nurse

The Importance Of The Advanced Practice Nurse

Florence Nightingale says that, "For us who nurse, our nursing is a thing which, unless we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it, we are going back..." (Cook, 1914, p. 264). From the time Florence Nightingale practiced nursing, the discipline of nursing has evolved. Due to the lack of accessibility to health care and expanding health care needs, the scope of the nursing practice continues to broaden. Because of the rise of scientific knowledge related to illness and disease process, the advance practice nurse emerged. In 1965, the first nurse practitioner program was developed. Since that time the need for more formal education and training has become the norm (Fairman, n.d.). The remainder of this report will review the role of the advanced practice nurse and how this role delivers comprehensible care, followed by a brief personal philosophy.

First of all, let us begin by identifying two terms, an advanced practice nurse and a nurse practitioner. The term advanced practice nurse acts as an umbrella to include an array of terms. These terms include family nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. The difference between nurse practitioners (NPs) and advanced practice nurses (APRN) is that NPs can offer a broader range of services to a wider population (Buppert, 2015). Buppert (2015) states NPs offer:

Wider range of services (evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, education, risk

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