Paper
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
New thinking on old solutions: Researching advanced practice nursing roles
Glenn Elizabeth Gardner, RN, PhD, MEdSt, BAppSc(AdvNrs), School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, DE, Australia, Christine Duffield, RN, PhD, Centre for Health Services Management, University of Technology, Sydney, Sydney, Australia, and Anne M. Chang, RN, DipNEd, BEdSt, MEdSt, PhD, Nursing Research Centre (inc. Queensland Centre for Evidence Based Nursing and Midwifery), Mater Health Services, Brisbane, Australia.
| Learning Objective #1: 1. Provide explanation of at least two issues related to nomenclature and definition of advanced practice nursing service
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| Learning Objective #2: 2. Describe the main elements of a service model for advanced practice nursing |
This paper reports on an exploratory study on role definition and standardisation of nomenclature for advanced practice nurses.
Background: There is an extensive body of literature on advanced practice nursing but there is little attention in this literature to what this means for health service providers trying to define the parameters of higher level nursing practice. Furthermore there is confusion internationally about nomenclature, role and scope of practice for advanced nursing roles. However, one of the advanced practice roles that is differentiated from this generic title, through standardised regulation, title protection and education in several jurisdictions, is the nurse practitioner. Therefore an emerging priority in Australia is to establish service parameters for advanced practice nursing and to operationally differentiate between advanced practice and nurse practitioner roles.
Design: We conducted an interpretive, qualitative examination, through in-depth interviews, of the practice of a random sample of nine advanced practice nurses working in a range of contexts in three acute care hospitals in south east Queensland, Australia. We also systematically examined models of advanced practice nursing from the literature. The interview data were then deductively analysed and tested against these published advanced practice nursing models.
Results: This analysis identified the Strong Model of Advanced Practice1 as most comprehensively supporting the practice experiences in this sample. Whilst this model was developed and tested over 10 years ago for a different health service environment, it nonetheless provides an appropriate framework to develop service models and an operational framework for implementation and evaluation of advanced practice nursing roles.
1. Ackerman M., Norsen L., Martin B., Wiedrich J. & Kitzman H. (1996): Develpment of a Model of Advanced Practice. American Journal of Critical Care 5, 68-73.