THE ROLE OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS IN MODERN HEALTHCARE

Abstract

With the increasingly complex nature of healthcare, the importance of the role that Nurse Practitioners (NPs) play in modern healthcare is explored. The significance of NPs in contemporary healthcare is investigated through examining the NPs’ education, scope of practice, and collaborative care. There is little doubt that NPs have contributed significantly to the healthcare team and patient care outcomes. And their effective role was demonstrated through various measurements such as prescribing antibiotics, listening and emotional support, patient explanation and relationship, and patient satisfaction. However, the role of NPs still has room for further improvements in future, such as restrictions on benefits limitation, lack of pharmacological guidelines, limited diagnostic tools, and professional mask requirements. As the key findings, NPs are well prepared and effective within their role providing the quality and patient-centered care. Also, despite challenges and deficiencies in their role, achievement demonstrated in their role functions and future prospective are promising.

As today’s world faces population increase, an aging demographic, chronic effects, staffing scarcities, and financial moderation in health care services, global healthcare services are put under increasing pressure. The progress of health care provision has necessary needs to evolve standards to treat such challenges and flares. In supporting multifaceted nursing roles from primary care to specialized hospitals, advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) play an important role in developing today’s health care model. The ANP role was enacted and supported in certain way in the United Kingdom in 2000, and being an NP has been further recognized within the extent of their practice and provision (Htay & Whitehead, 2021). The course of the U.K. practice conducted the four pillars of advanced practice that subsequently progressed as the global nature of Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) broadened practice; these being clinical practice, leadership, education, and research. There is an increasing study considering the clinical benefit of NPs when compared to groups of health staffs in terms of patient outcomes. However, in coherently representing and reviewing diverse studies research outcomes, no clear consensus was found. It was also revealed that many observational studies made without controlled measures were not randomized.