[Institution Title]
An Overview: Family Nurse Practitioner
In every community, each individual has their respective parts to play. This part are identified as role. Role is defined as “the set of interconnected rights, beliefs, norms and behaviors as determined by the people in a given social condition” (MacMillan Online Dictionary, 2014). It is then acceptable to assume that roles are dictated by the society according to what it deemed appropriate and necessary for a specific individual based on social position or social status. In the case of the Nurse Practitioner, he or she too has a socially-determined role to play to the betterment of the community. However, before one can proceed towards enumerating the role of the nurse practitioner, it is best to know how this social position came to exist. It was sometime during the late 50’s, and early 60’s there has been a growing scarcity of physicians to address the growing needs of the people. In addition, given the dramatic increase in the opportunity for specialization in the field of medicine, majority of the physicians had been displaced from rendering primary care. This began a period when rural health centers have become isolated, and the health of the public had been compromised. The scarcity of the available primary care services has been intensified in 1965 with the launch of the Medicaid programs that awarded health coverage for women, children, disabled and the elderly from low-income family. To address the gap, doctors began training clinically-experienced nurses. These nurses were believed to be the solution to the growing demand for primary care. About the same year that Medicaid was launched was the time that the first training school for nurse practitioners were opened by Nurse Loretta Ford and Dr. Henry Silver (O'Brien, 2003). A nurse practitioner is a nurse practitioner who has the skills that are especially needed in the detection and management of acute self-limiting disorder (Sullivan-Marx, McGivern, Fairman, & Greenberg, 2010). This also includes the management of chronic but stable conditions. The FNP is also responsible in providing primary ambulatory care to individuals with the direction of a primary care physician (Doval Mezey & O'Neill McGivern, 1999).
Licensure vs. Certification
Licensure is commonly associated with activities that are considered otherwise forbidden with the proper expertise and specialization (Wilson, 2014). Thus, licensure awards the individual to privilege to perform the activity. A license is considered a mandatory requirement in the performance of an activity that is typically awarded by the government. The system of licensure limits or control the people’s entry to a given act or profession because of the necessary skills and expertise require of the profession. On the other hand, certification is only a declaration that one has successfully completed a course, passed an exam or met a particularly given requirement (Wilson, 2014). However, it is not a permission that allows an individual to act, but merely a statement of qualification or eligibility. An example of licensure is driving. Not everyone is allowed to drive because it needs the mastery of a particular skill. In addition, anyone caught driving without a license would be considered violating the law. This limits the people who engage into the act of driving like those who does not have the psychological and mental capacity to drive especially. Certification, on the other hand, can best be represented with a CPR certification. A CPR Certificate only means that the person was able to complete the necessary training for the course. However, that does not give the individual the right nor the privilege to practice medical and other health-related procedure or treatment.
Scope of Practice
A nurse practitioner’s scope of practice varies from state to state. In some states, they allow the nurse practitioner to practice their profession independently while on some states it needs to be collaborated with a physician or a supervisor. In the state of Georgia, the Georgia Registered Professional Nurse Act identifies all the provisions and specifications on the role, duties, requirements and specifications for nurses and nurse practitioners. In Title 410, chapter 12, Section 3 enumerates the rules for nurse practitioners. Specifically, in Article 3 Section 2(a) it states that the scope of practice for family nurse practitioners includes the advanced practice nursing care and medical services specific to the nurse practitioner respective specialty to individuals, families and groups, emphasizing health promotion and disease prevention as well as the diagnosis and management of acute and chronic diseases. The nurse practitioner collaborates as necessary with a variety of individuals to diagnose and manage clients' health care problems (The State of Georgia, 2013). However, not inclusive to the role of the family nurse practitioner relates with the performing minor medical and surgical procedure without the supervision and collaboration of a licensed physician. Requirements for licensure as Family Nurse Practitioner includes the following: (a) evidence of current licensure as a registered professional nurse in Georgia; (b) a completed Board application with required fee; (c) official transcript which verifies graduation with a master’s or higher degree in nursing for the respective nurse practitioner specialty or a graduate level post--master’s certificate in an advanced practice registered nurse practitioner specialty and evidence of advanced pharmacology within the curriculum or as a separate course, advanced physical assessment, and pathophysiology and (d) verification of current national certification from the respective Board-recognized certifying organization (The State of Georgia, 2013). This is also specified under Article 3, Sections 3(a)-(d) of the Rules for Nurse Practitioners in the State of Georgia.
Health Care Policy and Legislature
The legislative process is a system by which the law is made. It involves the series of steps that a bill or a proposal typical undergoes a law (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2014). On the other hand, a system by which the law is implemented, but is regulated as determined by its procedure and specifications is called the regulatory process.
An example of state policy in Georgia is the State Health Benefits Plan. According to the State Health Benefits Plan state employees including retirees, teachers and school system employees are covered by the health insurance properly accorded by the state of Georgia. The coverage of the benefit includes their dependents (Georgia Department of Community Health, 2014). The role of the Family Nurse Practitioners in this state program is to provide the residents with the information and ensure their full access to the rewards of the State Health Benefits Plan.
Prescriptive Authority and Other Challenges of the FNP Role
A family nurse practitioner’s role is often challenged. The challenge, usually, arise from their level of expertise and capabilities to execute and perform the roles that had, usually, been assigned to primary care physicians. In addition, other challenges also include the growing scarcity in the number of family nurse practitioner due to the high cost of pursuing specialization. At the same time, the necessary experience appropriated for a registered nurse to complete before they can progress to becoming a family nurse practitioner.
Family nurse practitioner is also being restricted in terms of execution and implementation of duties in the absence of a physician or a supervisor to collaborate with them. This prevents them from performing emergency medical procedure that could address the immediate care needed by the patient. On the other hand, as far as the Drug Enforcement Agency is concerned, a family nurse practitioner is limited to exercising their role. This is because their scope of duty is not included in this health institution as it believed that they did not possess the sufficient expertise and training in handling patient with drug addiction and drug abuse problems. The practice of electronic prescription furthers limits the role of a nurse practitioner because the prescription and dispensing of medication have not been electronic-based. This limits the scope of their duties while increasing the problems relating to mismanagement of drug administration because it is not adequately explained to the patient.
Conclusion
Given the knowledge and understanding of the role and the duties of a family nurse practitioner, it enables the public to know what activities and services that a family nurse practitioner is allowed to do. This also enables people to respect the authority of the family nurse practitioner. People now have the knowledge of the process that these professionals had to go through in order to earn their title and their license to perform their duties and responsibilities.
References
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. (2014, October 7). Introduction to the Legislative and Regulatory Process. Retrieved from American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Website: http://www.aacn.org/WD/Practice/Content/PublicPolicy/intro.pcms?menu=Practice
Doval Mezey, M., & O'Neill McGivern, D. (1999). Nurses, Nurse Practitioners: Evolution to Advanced Practice. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Georgia Department of Community Health. (2014, October 14). State Health Benefit Plan Program. Retrieved from Georgia Department of Community Health Website: http://dch.georgia.gov/state-health-benefit-plan-shbp
MacMillan Online Dictionary . (2014, October 8). Role. Retrieved from MacMillan Online Dictionary Website: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/role
O'Brien, J. M. (2003). History of Nurse Practitioner. American Journal of Health System Pharmacy, 1-4. Retrieved from Medscape Website: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/464663_2
Sullivan-Marx, E., McGivern, D., Fairman, J., & Greenberg, S. (2010). Nurse Practitioners: The Evolution and Future of Advanced Practice. New York City: Springer Publishing Company.
The State of Georgia. (2013). Georgia Code: Rules for Nurse Practitioners. Atlanta: The State of Georgia.
Wilson, L. (2014, October 7). Licensure versus Certification. Retrieved from American Naturopathic Medical Association: http://anma.org/licvscert.html
