Interview
Abstract
Nursing professionals are key players in the provision of advanced health care services to the patients. The advanced professional nurses form a category of nurses who have undergone high level training on nursing matters. To explore the role of advanced professional nurses, an advanced professional nurse was interviewed on a face-to-face set-up. The interview was conducted for the purpose of providing detailed information on the role played by advanced professional nurses in the provision of quality health care services. The interviewee was a competent and experienced professional nurse and was suitable in understanding in-depth the role of the advanced professional nurses. The interview involved ten interview questions and lasted for about two hours. The responses of the interviewee were compared and contrasted with existing research and theories, and a conclusion drawn.
Introduction
Nurses play a critical role in ensuring that quality health care services are offered to the clients. Nurses who have been adequately trained and certified by the country’s health ministry falls in the category of health care providers referred to as the advanced practice providers. The advanced professional nurses are expected to operate within the policy of the health care sector to ensure that the rights of the patients are observed. The advanced professional nurses are expected to have undergone a high level of training, and therefore they carry out clinical activities such as ordering for diagnostic tests and making other critical medical decisions in the absence of the doctor. Health care ethical practices and leadership are essential skills, which should be possessed by advanced professional nurses because they make important medical decisions concerning patients in their profession.
Interview
The existing published research does not provide a depth discussion on the role of advanced professional nurses; hence, I conducted an interview to gather detailed information on the issue. I interviewed John Nick, ph. D., for a depth discussion on the role of advanced professional nurses, through a face-to-face environment. Dr. Nick is a qualified expert in the field of nursing with a twenty-year experience. The interviewee has published advanced research studies on the role of advanced professional nurses in the health care sector. To determine the professional expectations nursing students have towards the advanced nursing profession, I asked Dr. Nick, “what are the practices you employ on the workplaces to ensure that you fulfill the professional expectations students and the public have towards you as advanced professional nurses?” Dr. Nick answered, “All the advanced professional nurses are expected to offer quality services to the patients, and therefore, advanced professional nurses should be aware of the quality assurance programs in the nursing sector.” The quality assurance is an integral part towards achieving improved health care services (Hewko, 2018). Through adherence to quality assurance policies, patients cannot suffer the stigmatization problem from the nurses. Therefore, it is the role of the advanced professional nurses to adhere to the nursing quality assurance policies to provide quality services as expected of them.
To understand the role of advanced nurses to improve the health conditions of patients, is asked Dr. Nick, “How does the health policy help nurses in their role of improving the health conditions of their clients?” The interviewee answered, “The primary role of the advanced professional nurses is to improve the health conditions of the patients using the available facilities. Nurses should believe in their ability to influence the present and the future medical sector to accomplish their role of improving the health conditions of their clients regardless of the social classes of the clients. To achieve the objective, it is important that policies exist that define the standards of services that should be delivered by the advanced professional nurses.” The National League for Nursing and American Nurses Association requires that advanced professional nurses address health policy more seriously as part of their professional roles (Kenner, 2018). According to the health policy, the service delivery standards by the health care provider differ from one patient to another, depending on the age of the patient. Health policy is an essential aspect in the health care sector in ensuring that the advanced professional nurses achieve the objective of improving the health conditions of the patients in the society.
To understand the role of professional nurses in reimbursement structure, I asked Dr. Nick, “What is the importance of the advanced professional nurses to understand the challenges and benefits in acquiring reimbursement for professional services. I also asked Dr. Nick, “How does the history of advanced professional nurses reimbursement relate to the current reimbursement structure?” Dr. Nick answered, “In regardless to whether the advanced professional nurse is employed by the medical practice or self-employed, the reimbursement policy used by the clients determines whether the advanced professional nurse provide the healthcare services in long-term basis or not. In around thirty years ago, direct reimbursement to the advanced professional nurses by the Medicare was only available in remote regions and on highly skilled nursing facilities.” Different third-party health care service payers such as the Medicare or indemnity insurers have different reimbursement policies governed by legal procedures (Whedon, 2017). In the current reimbursement policies, direct reimbursement to advanced professional nurses is provided by Medicare to all the geographical and clinical setting at the rate that is close to the physician rate.
To determine the role of the advanced professional nurses in ensuring ethics in health care, I asked the interviewee, “What is the importance of ethics in the nursing sector?” Dr. Nick answered, “Ethics provides the legal procedures, which advanced professional nurses should follow in the process of service delivery to the patients.” In addition, I asked Dr. Nick, “How does Evidence-Based Practice in nursing assist the advanced professional nurses in providing quality health care services?” Also, I asked Dr. Nick, “What are some of the challenges that are encountered in the process of providing quality health care services to the patients?” The interviewee answered, “The advanced professional nurses have the role making knowledgeable clinical decisions, which are beyond the Evidence-Based Practices, and focused on the patient outcomes. Some patients are reluctant in providing their health history, which hinders the advanced professional nurses from providing patient outcome-focused services.” To achieve Evidence-Based Practice nursing and outcome-focused nursing services, the patients should be willing to provide all the information about the past medication and health history to the advanced professional nurse (Zaccagnini, 2019). In the recent years, there have been numerous changes in the health care sector, including increased demand for advanced professional nurses to deliver quality services.
To understand how leadership by the advanced professional nurse is useful in providing health care solution, I asked Dr. Nick, “What is the role of advanced professional nurses in providing clear leadership in nursing?” I further asked, “what are some of the factors that affect the nurse leadership?” lastly, I asked Dr. Nick, “What is the role of the advanced professional nurse on ethical dilemmas that frequently arises in the health care sector?” The interviewee answered, “Advanced professional nurses should by leaders to other developing nurses by providing directions and making critical decisions. Gender and identity are some of the factors that affect the advanced professional nurses’ leadership. Advanced professional nurses have the role of applying the existing theories in solving ethical dilemmas that arise in the current health care sector.” Leadership skills by the advanced professional nurses affect the behaviors of the other health care providers surrounding them (Regan, 2016). Good leadership skills by advanced professional nurses help in achieving improved health care services in the current medical sector.
Conclusion
Nurses play an integral part in ensuring quality and advanced health care services are offered to all the members of the community. Advanced professional nurses are a group of highly trained nurses who are certified by the country’s health care sector. Advanced professional nurses perform critical functions such as diagnostic test even in the absence of the doctors. The advanced professional nurses should adhere to all the nursing guidelines so that quality health care services to the clients is achieved. Since advanced professional nurses make critical medical decisions, they should demonstrate understanding on health policy, health care ethics, and they should have excellent leadership skills to influence the behavior of the other health care providers positively.
References
Hewko, S. J., Cummings, G. G., Pietrosanu, M., & Edwards, N. (2018). The impact of quality assurance initiatives and workplace policies and procedures on HIV/AIDS-related stigma experienced by patients and nurses in regions with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. AIDS and Behavior, 22(12), 3836-3846.
Kenner, C., Ashford, K., Badr, L. K., Black, B., Bloch, J., Mainous, R., … & Verklan, M. T. (2018). American Academy of Nursing on policy: Reducing preterm births in the United States: Maternal infant health, child, adolescent and family, and women’s health expert panels (August 13, 2018). Nursing outlook, 66(5), 499-504.
Regan, S., Laschinger, H. K., & Wong, C. A. (2016). The influence of empowerment, authentic leadership, and professional practice environments on nurses’ perceived interprofessional collaboration. Journal of nursing management, 24(1), E54-E61.
Whedon, J., Tosteson, T. D., Kizhakkeveettil, A., & Kimura, M. N. (2017). Insurance reimbursement for complementary healthcare services. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(4), 264-267.
Zaccagnini, M., & Pechacek, J. M. (2019). The doctor of nursing practice essentials: A new model for advanced practice nursing. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.