Nurse Practitioner Practice
Nurse practitioners are guided by theory in their practice. Their success in practice depends on their practicing evidence-based care and their competency in assessing, diagnosing, and managing patients (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, n. d.). Graduate educational programs that prepare nurses for advanced nursing have certain core elements such as graduate nursing core and specialty curriculum content. These core essentials prepare advanced practice nurses for direct care roles (Fan, 2009). This paper will describe how theory and research will be integrated into my practice as a nurse practitioner.
In my nurse practitioner role, I will integrate and apply a broad range of theories from nursing and other disciplines such as natural, biological, and social sciences. The clinical care that I intend to provide will be holistic and centered on the personal health and illness experiences of my clients and patients. In providing this holistic and comprehensive care, my practice will be guided by a range of theories. To this end, I will critique and evaluate theories from nursing as well as those from other sciences. Congruent theories will then be applied in the provision of high quality care to patients and clients. The theories will be used to guide and inform patient assessments, decision making, care planning, and delivery of planned care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, n. d.). Application of theories will also help me understand the health care delivery system in which I will be practicing.
Research knowledge and skills will be used to search for and identify population specific research articles from appropriate databases. They will further be used to evaluate and critically appraise the findings of such research and identify the outcomes of nursing practice. Research knowledge and skills will additionally be used in the identification of problems and evidence-based solutions to problems within the clinical practice context. New knowledge identified through evaluation and critique of research findings will be used to initiate change, provide high quality health care, and improve my nursing practice. These research findings will act as the basis for clinical as well as organizational decision making with regards to issues such as treatment regimens for specified disease conditions (Titler, 2008).
In summary, this paper has described how I will incorporate theory and research into my advanced nursing practice role. Theories from nursing and other disciplines will inform my clinical practice and decision making processes. Research knowledge and skills will be used to identify appropriate and relevant new knowledge, appraise this knowledge, and integrate it into clinical practice.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (n. d.). The essentials of master’s education for advanced nursing practice. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education- resources/MasEssentials96.pdf
Fan, Y. (2009). On the essentials of theoretical education and clinical practice for advanced nursing. Global Journal of Health Science, 1(2), 136-140.
Titler, M. G. (2008). The evidence for evidence-based practice implementation. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2659/.
