Roles of Advanced Pratice Nurses (Essay Sample)

NR 586 Week 1 DQ Advanced Practice Nurses Student's Name Program Name or Degree University Course Instructor's Name Date NR 586 Week 1 DQ Advanced Practice Nurses Advanced practice nurses play crucial roles in improving population health. APNs' involvement in public health is the focus of this discussion. Public health competencies encompass population health management, interdisciplinary collaboration, equitable population health policy, and population advocacy concepts. APNs are conversant with these areas and use public health competencies to improve their client population's health. Nurses use the competencies to plan, implement, and utilize community assessment and community diagnosis to identify client population needs (Goddard & Esposito, 2021). APNs also participate in research to better understand population needs and their impacts. They use the information gathered to develop community-empowering solutions to address the problems/needs identified. Advanced practice nurses utilize current protocols and guidelines to develop evidence-based interventions in collaboration with the client population to improve health outcomes. APNs also influence policy development through active advocacy and report writing. They also provide high-quality data to policymakers to help inform decision-making and enhance the quality and safety of the client population (Goddard & Esposito, 2021). The advanced practice nurse thus uses their public health competencies to identify and address client population needs. Population health needs are diverse and complex, making it difficult for nurses alone to address them. APNs need to collaborate with other care professionals and community stakeholders. One of the significant collaboration methods is through referral systems. APNs, other care professionals, and community stakeholders can develop complex referral systems that help patients access the necessary resources to promote their health. For example, collaboration with community resources such as rehabilitation centers assisted living facilities, and safe homes can facilitate easy referral and prompt access to these vital services. Rose et al. (2020) state that APNs can participate in interdisciplinary teams to develop comprehensive care plans, and policy advocacy can help address population needs. For example, APNs can be involved in disaster preparedness teams that identify and address population needs. These professionals provide vital health/nursing perspectives to these teams, enhancing their success in addressing population health needs. Time constraints are a significant challenge for APNs in integrating population health competencies into their practices. Heavy workloads in their professional roles leave them with little to focus on population health initiatives/competencies integration in practices. Strategies to overcome this challenge include implementing time management techniques and task delegation to help create time to focus on implementing these strategies. Another challenge is resistance to change. Integrating the population health competencies requires the collaboration of patients, other care professionals, and other care stakeholders, as Stanhope and Lancaster (2021) note. Resistance to change and a lack of support can affect the integration process. Strategies to overcome this challenge include educating the stakeholders to gain their support. Organizations and healthcare systems can support APNs in implementing population health strategies and initiatives by providing healthcare resources. G...