Essay Example on Nurse Practitioners: Promoting Good Health, Prevention & Better Care Outcomes

Introduction

Nurse practitioners work hand in hand and collaborative teams with other health professionals to promote good health, prevention of diseases, to improve availability and accessibility of these services to the population and to manage health outcomes for certain patients, or the community. The nurses manage care episodes as they are the lead healthcare providers that are in partnership with the consumers of healthcare services (Sensmeier, 2015). A nurse practitioner is guided by several competencies which enable the nurses to focus on comprehending on how to access and utilize the information databases and how to evaluate the findings critically in the researches. This enables them to provide quality care to their patients to increase the desired outcomes with regards to health, knowledge, and standards.

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This paper seeks to elaborate three nurse practitioner competencies further, i.e., data analysis and evidence for improving advanced nursing practice, the relationship among access, cost, quality and safety and their influences on healthcare and the integration of appropriate technologies for knowledge management to improve healthcare. The paper also seeks to explore ways of accomplishing each of the above competencies in clinical practice.

Data analysis and evidence for improving advanced nursing practice

Evidence-based standards or practices refer to the combination of research, clinical knowledge, and the preference of patients to arrive at a healthcare decision. It is based on the emphasis of quality information and disregards the use of opinions, customs, and rituals for reaching a clinical judgment. Through this data is analyzed by comparing the patient's data with the quality information to reach effective judgments. The competence, therefore, aims at providing care that is effective, compassionate, and safe for the ailing patient. Therefore, all health practitioners inclusive of nurses should strive to carry out evidence-based practice as they believe that all healthcare judgments should have an external basis (Randall et al. 2017).

For nurse practitioners to ensure that they use evidence-based standards in their practice, they should engage in training programs that enhance their knowledge and ability of the practitioners to advocate for change in the whole organization at large. Also, these training programs raise their awareness of the relationship between good clinical practice and research evidence. Carrying out research is also important since there are discoveries of treatment, symptoms of many conditions, and they need to be up to date with research knowledge (Sensmeier, 2015).

The relationship between access, cost, quality, and safety and their influences on healthcare

Over the years, research shows that patients receive the same care given by nurse practitioners as that of physicians. Moreover, studies also show that nurse practitioners provide care that is extremely cost-effective since healthcare services continue to increase. In addition to costs being effective, they administer quality services that are readily accessible to clients. Nurses are also cautious with the safety of both the patient and themselves (Saunders & Vehvilainen-Julkunen, 2016). This reduces the risk of spread of infections or contagious diseases. This thus influences the healthcare services as they are of quality and effective costs with great considerations to the safety of the patient. With the combination of the four, the quality of care in health care organizations will improve.

They can be accomplished by:

• Reduction of cost of their services to patients in health care services for instance through lowering drug costs for in-patients,
• The nurses should keep patients out of home, especially patients with chronic diseases like cancer, as they affect these patients emotionally, physically, and the high costs of these services.
• Cost effective education and training for the nurses improve on their competency in their work. This, in hand, ensures that they give quality services to patients.
• Reasonable working hours for nurses to avoid stress and burnouts because when they are under these conditions, they are more susceptible to committing errors or omissions while serving patients. They may forget to put on gloves to prevent infections etc.
• Safety kits should be provided and should be stocked with the necessary equipment like gloves etc.

The integration of appropriate technologies for knowledge management to improve healthcare

This entails the use of technological advances to improve healthcare services. Technology has opened numerous teaching approaches for nurses. However, the old generation nurses face a challenge, especially those who did not grow up in the computer age. Therefore, there exists a need for bridging the gap by acquiring knowledge of these technological advancements to improve the management of healthcare services. Telehealth is becoming rather popular, and nurse practitioners should be familiar with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to utilize these technologies in practice (Saunders & Vehvilainen-Julkunen, 2016). These technologies are used to train nurses to deliver quality services as well as equip them with knowledge of how to use these technological advancements in providing proper quality healthcare to patients. They also increase patient safety, efficient care coordination, enhance performance analysis, and they increase the accessibility of patients information.

These can be accomplished by:

• Installation of technological information systems in these organizations like the electronic health Records for easy accessibility of patients information.
• Acquisition of new and advanced machines like the CT-scans, PET scans X-ray machines that will give proper results.
• To provide teaching programs that equip the nurses with the knowledge of these technological advancements to increase their competency in utilizing these electronics.

Conclusion

In conclusions, the nurse practitioner is guided by a variety of competencies that enable them to provide healthcare services that are of quality. To ensure this, the nurse practitioner has to emphasize data analysis that should be evidence-based for accuracy in practice. Moreover, providing services that are easily accessible, cost-effective, of quality, and puts the safety of patient and nurse first and the integration of technology for knowledge and to improve the healthcare systems. Through various ways like training programs, installing technological advancements, providing safety kits, cost-effective services, etc. enables the nurses to meet the requirements of these competencies.

References

Randall S, Crawford T, Currie J, River J. (2017). Impact of community-based nurse-led clinics on patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient access, and cost-effectiveness: a systematic review. Elsevier.

Saunders H, Vehvilainen-Julkunen K, (2016). International Journal of Nursing: The state of readiness for the evidence-based practice among nurses. Elsevier.

Sensmeier, J., (2015). Nursing Management: Big Data and the Future of Nursing Knowledge. journals.lww.com