American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is one of the licensed organizations for the specialty of Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) (Bernard, 2013). FNP are registered nurses that serve in the primary and specialty health care under a physician. Family Nurse Practitioners in AANP work with patients to diagnose illness, conduct exams, and prescribe medication (Paul, 2013). The nurses serve as the patient’s sole provider to run their private lives. An AANP-FNP will diagnose the illness of the patient, prescribe medication and therapy, conduct routine check-ups, perform disease prevention measures, perform minor surgery, and order patient laboratory tests.FNP addresses the health care needs of the family since they provide health assessments, guidance, counseling, and direct care. The practitioner will work in collaboration with the primary care physicians, and other professionals in the health care system.
The main traditional role of the AAPN-FNP is to address the unequal access of the primary health care.
Running & Berndt (2012) asserts that theories and explanatory models in family health have emerged that illustrate how family beliefs influence the entire family. A family health model suggests a way to attend the family as a unit through development in the ecological perspective. An illness belief model that explores the beliefs of the patient, family, health care providers and connect the belief to illness suffering.
A nursing model in AAPN examines the connection between beliefs, spiritual, and illness suffering (Fenstermacher & Hudson, 2013). A family nursing model assesses families and predicts outcomes in the family nursing intervention. An FNP program intervention embraces the family nursing science and the practice competencies. An FNP program incorporates family theories and the models in the curriculum. The belief concerning the family life will influence the health of the entire family. The scope of practice of the FNP will deliver different acute and preventive services in addition to performing diagnosis and treating illness.
The Affordable Care Act and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act will support the reform in the healthcare to expand a cost effective care. The act will transform health care delivery through initiated innovative model to expand access and improve care to communities. The new health reform law provides different changes in the delivery of primary care and other health services. Family Nursing Practitioners have a central role to realize the promise of health reform to transform the health system.
The enactment of Nursing Working Development Act in 1998 will focus on the quality of education program. The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) direct the development in the specialty of family health practices. The project lays the foundation to identify competencies in all areas of nurse practitioner practices to promote high quality and consistent educational programs. NONPF incorporates nursing literature in program standards and core competencies. The core competencies of the graduate nurse practitioner build on nursing knowledge so as to achieve an advanced level in the nursing practice. The AACN outlines the curriculum of graduate foundation to enable the advancement of the nursing practice. The AACN outlines the nursing core content that includes health policy, research, and ethics in the health assessment. The specialty for the nurse practitioner will focus on diagnosis and management in the clinical practice and the role of a specific area. The implementation of the competencies will develop an effective assessment for the successful transition in the curriculum. An entry level nurse practitioner has practical experience in the performance of the primary care procedure in the academic program.
The entry level competencies of the Family Nurse Practitioner will supplement the core competency with all the practitioners. The population in the primary care includes infants, adolescents, newborns, and adults. A family nurse practitioner demonstrates commitment to the family centered care in the ambulatory care.
References
Bernard, J. (2013). AANP Forum. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 9(8), A19-A22.
Fenstermacher, K., & Hudson, B. T. (2013). Practice guidelines for family nurse practitioners (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders.
Paul, S. (2013). AANP Recognizes the 2013 Corporate Council. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 25(12), 682-683.
Running, A. F., & Berndt, A. E. (2012). Management guidelines for nurse practitioners working in family practice. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis.
