NUR 513 Week 8 Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper

NUR 513 Week 8 Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are specialty nurses who enter the profession with specialized roles and practice scope based on the reforms occurring to improve access and quality of care. APRNs have an essential role in shaping the direction of care delivery based on their expertise and involvement in professional nursing organizations like the American Nurses Association (ANA). The scope and roles of nurse leaders continues to widen due to dynamic health environment and the need to serve diverse patient population (Stamps et al., 2021). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the scope nurse leadership specialty and three professional organizations that are most influential in advancing this scope and influence of advanced nursing. The paper also discusses a controversial issue that may impact nurse leadership’s scope of practice and role.

Future Scope, Role, Regulatory, Certification & Accreditation

My future role is being a nurse leader. Leadership is intrinsic to nursing as nurses at different levels and specialties make decisions and perform duties aimed at saving lives. The nursing professional hold more opportunities for APRNs who excel at guiding and inspiring others. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted more than expected the critical role that strong leadership plays in nursing profession (Walker et al., 2018). The pandemic was a catalyst for change and innovation as nurse leaders from all levels of the profession responded to new challenges by creating new care models and new workflows through leveraging technology like telemedicine to communicate not just with patients but also other healthcare workers.

There are several types of nurse leadership roles with some focusing on direct patient care, while others focus on managerial and administrative functions. Nursing leadership in clinical settings focus on patient care which entails performance of different functions associated with other medical professional. The APRNs in leadership roles can diagnose, treat, and prescribe medications to patients. The expertise of nurse leaders enables them to assess nursing practices and innovate care programs. Nurse leaders in these settings encourage reflective practices in the teams and evaluate successes and areas that require improvement to inform future practice. Their scope also includes serving as knowledge sources in specialty areas and even general medicine where they deal with both the delivery and assessment of treatment outcomes. Brunt and Bogdan (2022) assert that nurse leaders have seven roles based on the “Nursing Professional Development (NPD): Scope and Standards of Practice” framework. These include facilitators of learning, agents of change, mentor, leader, a champions for scientific investigation, advocates for specialties and partners for practice transitions.

There are four types of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) whose scope include diagnosing and managing patient problems as well as ordering tests and prescribing medications. These include certified nurse practitioner (CNP), clinical nurse specialist (CNS), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) and certified nurse-midwife (CNM). Aside from roles based on their specialized scope, they also promote health education, and disease prevention. Chief nursing officers (CNOs) and chief nursing executive (CNEs) are leadership roles that develop and assess practices to enhance patient safety and nursing care. Clinical nurse leaders (CNLs) oversee the care of patient groups although they may offer direct patient care. CNLs scope include implementation of evidence-based practice, evaluation of patient outcomes, and carrying out risk assessments (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). The CNL also coordinates care with other healthcare professional like physicians, pharmacists, social workers, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialist.

Accreditation, Regulation and Certification

The accreditation, regulation and certification of nurse leaders depend on the specialty. Recognition and certification of any advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) happens when one enrolls and acquires a post graduate nursing education from accredited courses and institutions in the country. Accreditation of APRN courses happens either nationally or regionally. For instance, certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) are accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Program. The body accredits all CRNA programs across the United States.

Regulatory framework for the practice of nurse leaders as APRN specialist rests in the state board of nursing for every state, including New York. The board is governed by the existing legislation, in this case, the Nursing Practice Act, that spells out the scope of practice for all APRNs, including clinical nurse leaders. For instance, New York’s Nursing Practice Act allows nurses to practice to full authority. Imperatively, as a nurse leader, one can practice independently without supervision by a physician to their fullest level of their training and education.

Certification of nurse leaders happens once they pass special certification examinations based on their specialty and scope of practice. The National Certification Examination (NCE) is offered by the National Board of Certification based on the specialty that one chooses. The implication is that nurse leaders must be specialized APRNs based on their expertise before they assume leadership roles. As such, nurse leaders must possess requisite competencies, irrespective of their specialty.

Three Professional Organizations

Professional nursing organizations are critical not only to APRNs but also to all other nurses since they allow networking, facilitate continuous professional development through conferences and research participation as well as publications. These organizations help nurses, especially nurse leaders to engage in advocacy and policymaking for the benefit of the members and other stakeholders in a unified and collective manner. The three professional associations include the American Nurses Association, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is an umbrella professional organization for all nurses, irrespective of their specialties. ANA engages in advocacy and professional development of its members. The association’s mission is using leadership to shape the future of the profession and healthcare. Founded in 1896, the association boasts of over 4 million members in the U.S. and its territories like Guam and Puerto Rico.

The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) is a professional national organization whose mission is to transform healthcare through expertise and influential nursing leadership. Previously known as the American Organization for Nurse Executives, the association altered its name to align with its mission and vision. American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is the biggest and only full-service national professional organization for all NPs in different specialties. AANP was established in 2013 after a merger between the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American College of Nurse Practitioners to offer nurse practitioners from different specialties with a unified approach to network and advocate for their issues.

Of these three professional organizations, the one that I will most likely join is the American Organizational for Nurse Leadership (AONL) since I am already a member of the other two. The mission and goals of the organization align with worldview on nursing and philosophy as a nurse leader. AONL promotes and advocates the professional development of nurse leaders through innovative and competency-based learning. The organization is also keen on advocacy for positive change and a collective voice to impact the transformation in healthcare delivery. The organization also builds a community of nurses based on their diversity and embracing of new ideas and care models across the care continuum.

Membership in the organization will enhance my practice as a leader because of the benefits that I will accrue like increased opportunities to improve my competencies and networking with fellow leaders. Through these interactions, one builds credibility and evidence to offer the best care interventions for their diverse patients and motivate their teams to deliver the best care (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019). Membership in this organization is essential to improving overall perspective and understanding of emerging issues in nursing and care provision.

Evolving Issue Likely to Impact Nurse Leadership Practice

The changing and transformation of healthcare in the United States presents a host of issues that impact and will continue to impact nurse leaders and implore them to develop requisite competencies to address them. Key among these issues is nursing shortage (Haddad et al., 2022). The reforms and new legislations like the Affordable Care Act and associated laws like Healthcare Affordability Act of 2021 continue to expand access to health for millions of Americans. Innovative models like value-based care and increased deployment of technologies like telemedicine all demonstrate a need for more nurses, especially in different specialties to meet the diverse needs of the population. An aging population of both patients and nurses means more demand for diverse care and increased competence levels for all nurses. The implication is that nursing shortage is a critical issue that nurse leaders must deal with as they contemplate their scope of practice.

Nursing shortage influences the nursing profession and other stakeholders in significant ways. Firstly, nurse leaders and nurses must develop innovative ways to address the issue and this may compromise their competence and performance as they strain to meet diverse patient needs. Secondly, nursing shortage influences nurse leaders as they have to deal with increased turnover rates and create schedules that are not friendly to nurses (Haddad et al., 2022). Thirdly, stakeholders like patients have limited access to care due to the shortage while hospitals and their management are mandated to develop innovative ways to deal with the issue. Nursing shortage matters to the advanced registered nurses as they must seek best approaches to address it and improve the level of care for patients and health populations.

Conclusion

Nurse leaders are important as APRNs based on their roles and competencies in care provision. Nurses across different specialties offer care to diverse patient populations to enhance outcomes. Nurse leadership demonstrates the need for nurses to develop competencies that will allow them offer quality care in a dynamic environment to meet diverse patient needs and requirements.

NUR 513 Week 8 Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper References

American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). (2022). About the American Association

of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). https://www.aanp.org/about/about-the-american-association-of-nurse-practitioners-aanp

American Nurses Association (ANA). (2022). Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN).

https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/workforce/what-is-nursing/aprn/

American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) (2022). American Organization for

            Nursing Leadership. https://www.aonl.org/about/overview

Brunt, B. A. & Bogdan, B. A. (2022). Nursing Professional Development Leadership.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519064/

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P. & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2022). Nursing Shortage.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Stamps, D. C., Foley, S. M., Gales, J., Lovetro, C., Alley, R., Opett, K., … & Faggiano, S.

(2021). Nurse leaders advocate for nurses across a health care system: COVID-19. Nurse Leader, 19(2), 159-164. DOI: 10.1016/j.mnl.2020.07.011

Turale, S., & Kunaviktikul, W. (2019). The contribution of nurses to health policy and advocacy

requires leaders to provide training and mentorship. International Nursing Review, 66(3):302-304. DOI: 10.1111/inr.12550.

Walker, D. K., Barton-Burke, M., Saria, M. G., Gosselin, T., Ireland, A., Norton, V., & Newton,

70. (2018). Everyday advocates: Nursing advocacy is a full-time job. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 115(8), 66-70. DOI: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000470409.04919.0f

Advanced registered nurses play a critical role in the current healthcare system in America. Advanced registered nurses enhance the access to care by addressing the shortage of physicians in the state. They also work with other healthcare providers and their patients to develop care interventions that utilize evidence-based data. In doing the above, advanced registered nurses practice in accordance with their scope of practice, standards, and philosophy. Therefore, this essay examines the scope of my future role as a nurse informaticist, professional organizations that will affect my scope, and evolving issues that are likely to affect my practice.

Scope of my Future Role as an Advanced Registered Nurse

My future role as an advanced registered nurse is nurse informaticist. Nurse informaticists are nurses who have advanced knowledge and skills in the use of informatics in healthcare. The scope of practice of nurse informaticists is broad. Accordingly, nurse informaticists integrate information management as well as analytical sciences into nursing science. The aim of integrating information from the above disciplines is to understand, define, and communicate the ways in which technology-related data can be used to inform nursing practice. The scope of nurse informatics also extends to the use of health technologies and their related data to make informed decisions in their organizations (Kleib & Nagle, 2018). The ability to make informed decisions using informatics is attributable to the support that health organizations and providers acquire using information processes, information structures, and information technology.

The scope of nurse informaticists also entails undertaking the assessment of organizational needs. Nurse informaticists perform an analysis of the needs of their organizations and the appropriate health technologies that can be embraced to address them. For example, nurse informaticists identify organizational issues such as medication errors and propose the use of technologies such as barcode medication administration systems in solving them (Strudwick et al., 2019). The scope of nurse informaticists also includes planning. Nurse informaticists participate in system development and planning where they develop strategies that are needed for the successful implementation of technologies in their organizations. They also implement, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted systems in addressing the needs of their organizations (O’Connor & LaRue, 2021). For example, they incorporate the inputs from other healthcare providers in ensuring the successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health information systems.

The scope of practice for nurse informaticists also includes the provision of their services with a consideration of ethics that influence their practice as well as competencies. Nurse informaticists promote safe, efficient and effective use of health information technologies in their organizations. They also ensure that competencies such as continued education, collaboration, leadership, and health policy are upheld in their practice (Kleib & Nagle, 2018). The American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC) certifies nurse informaticists. The respective states license the informaticists. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is also another professional body that influences the scope of practice for the nurse informaticists. ANA develops and defines the scope of practice, ethics, and competencies that nurse informaticists should uphold in their practice.

Three Professional Nursing Organizations

Professional nursing organizations play an important role in influencing the scope of practice, personal and professional development of advanced registered nurses. Nurse informaticists can belong to a number of professional nursing organizations. However, I am most likely to join professional organizations that include American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), and American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a professional organization that was developed with the aim of educating health information professionals. The organization aims at ensuring that health information professionals have the desired knowledge and skills in promoting safe use of health technologies and patient data. The organization also helps health organizations to achieve their desired goals of efficiency by ensuring interconnectedness of the patients with their healthcare providers and organizations. Nurse informaticists benefit by being members of the AHIMA by accessing the educational resources for their continued professional development. They also benefit from networking with other informaticists; hence, sharing information on ways in which health informatics can be advanced (AHIMA, n.d.).

The American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) is another professional institution that I can belong as a nurse informaticist. ANIA is a professional organization that was established for nurse informaticists. The organization aims at ensuring the integration of nursing, computer, and information science into nursing and informatics practice. The organization also advocates the adoption of interventions that increase the relevance of nursing informatics as a specialty that is critical to organizational performance and success. ANIA benefits its members through the promotion of professional development opportunities such as training and conferences and networking platform (ANIA, n.d.).

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is the third professional organization that influences my scope of practice and role. AMIA is a professional organization that was developed with the main aim of transforming healthcare through practice of informatics. AMIA acts as a platform for connecting a community of professionals as well as students that are interested in health informatics. The organization also provides its members the opportunities to collaborate on issues related to application of informatics into research, education and healthcare. The membership to AMIA benefits healthcare providers through the provision of opportunities for professional development and networking (AMIA, n.d.).

One I am Likely to Join

I am most likely to join ANIA. I am likely to join ANIA because it was established with the main aim of meeting the needs of nurse informaticists. The organization is mainly interested in examining the ways in which nurse informaticists can contribute optimally to the performance of their organization. The organization also uses nursing philosophy in supporting interventions or initiatives that improve informatics in nursing and health. The mission, vision and goals of ANIA also align with my nursing philosophy. Accordingly, I believe in doing good and protecting the rights of others. ANIA aims at promoting safe and efficient use of health informatics in nursing practice. The organization strives to achieve its mission through collaboration, research and evidence-based practice. The organization’s focus on the above aspects aligns with my philosophy. My membership with ANIA will improve my practice in a number of ways. Firstly, the organization will contribute to my personal and professional development. The organization will provide me the opportunities to participate in interventions that contribute to continuous improvements in the practice of informatics (Nagle, 2021). The organization will also provide me the educational resources that I needed to develop and advance my competencies as a nurse informaticist. The other way in which my membership to ANIA will contribute to my practice is expanding my professional network. I will collaborate with other nurse informaticists in examining the ways in which nursing practice can be improved. I will also use the organization as a platform to share my knowledge with other providers through participation in activities such as scientific conferences on informatics.

Controversial or Evolving Issue Likely to Affect my Scope

A number of emerging or controversial issues are likely to affect my future scope as a nurse informaticist.  One of the issues is the promotion of the meaningful use of health information systems. The use of health information technologies entails the sharing of information between and among healthcare providers. Sharing of information entails the use of EMR systems that are associated with the challenge of maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of data. The use of EMR systems raise ethical issues related to protection of data integrity by health organizations. The implication of the above on my future practice is the increased need for the adoption of EMR systems that uphold data integrity. I also have the responsibility of assisting the organizations that I will be working in the future select effective and efficient systems to ensure meaningful use of data. The other emerging issue that is likely to affect my future scope of practice is the increased use of health technologies to provide personalized patient-care. Health technologies such as Telehealth have largely been embraced to promote patient-centered, continuity in care, and efficiency. However, the technologies raise ethical concerns about the safety and integrity of the patient data (Kleib et al., 2021). Therefore, I will have the responsibility of ensuring the safe and efficient use of health technologies in addressing the health needs of the diverse patient populations.

Conclusion

Nurse informaticists play a critical role in healthcare. Nurse informaticists abide by their scope of practice in addressing the needs of their organizations and patients. Professional organizations have a positive impact on the roles played by nurse informaticists. The organizations provide them with opportunities for professional growth alongside imparting them with knowledge and skills needed to address controversial and emerging needs in their practice. Therefore, nurse informaticists should remain updated on the events that affect their current and future practice.

References

AHIMA. (n.d.). AHIMA Home. AHIMA. https://www.ahima.org/

AMIA. (n.d.). AMIA Mission | AMIA. https://www.amia.org/about-amia/mission-and-history

ANIA. (n.d.). About Us [Text]. American Nursing Informatics Association. https://www.ania.org/about-us

Kleib, M., Chauvette, A., Furlong, K., Nagle, L., Slater, L., & McCloskey, R. (2021). Approaches for defining and assessing nursing informatics competencies: A scoping review. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19(4), 794–841. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-20-00100

Kleib, M., & Nagle, L. (2018). Development of the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale and Evaluation of Alberta’s Registered Nurses’ Self-perceived Informatics Competencies. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(7), 350–358. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000435

Nagle, L. M. (2021). The Role of the Informatics Nurse. In P. Hussey & M. A. Kennedy (Eds.), Introduction to Nursing Informatics (pp. 295–315). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58740-6_11

O’Connor, S., & LaRue, E. (2021). Integrating informatics into undergraduate nursing education: A case study using a spiral learning approach. Nurse Education in Practice, 50, 102934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102934

Strudwick, G., Nagle, L., Kassam, I., Pahwa, M., & Sequeira, L. (2019). Informatics Competencies for Nurse Leaders: A Scoping Review. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(6), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000760

Advanced registered nursing graduates are entering the profession at dynamic time when roles and scope of practice are shifting based on developments in legislation and policy in response to the evolving needs of the health care system. Professional nursing organizations play an important role in making sure the perspectives of advanced registered nurses are heard, and in supporting nurse specialties in their efforts to expand their scope of practice and their full participation throughout the health care system.

For this assignment, you will conduct research on the current scope of practice for your specialty and efforts that are being made to expand that scope and the role of the advanced nurse in positively influencing the health care system. Write a 1,250-1,500-word paper that includes the following:

A discussion of the scope of your future role as an advanced registered nurse, including any regulatory, certification, or accreditation agencies that define that scope.
A discussion of three professional nursing organizations that you think are most influential in advancing the scope and influence of advanced nursing. Of these organizations, evaluate the one that you would most like to join. How do its goals and mission fit in with your worldview and philosophy of care? How might membership in this organization improve your practice?
A discussion of a controversial or evolving issue that is most likely to affect your scope of practice or role in the next few years. How do you think this issue could influence the profession and other stakeholders, and why does it matters to the advanced registered nurse?
You are required to cite five to 10 sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.