After reviewing the different setting in which Family Nurse Practitioners work. What setting will be your career choice and why?
Due to their wide-ranging knowledge base and patient population experience, family nurse practitioners are found in multiple clinical settings, including physician’s offices, independent private practices, hospitals, local health departments, schools, community clinics, state institutions, acute and long term care settings in addition to other ambulatory care services. My career choice will be to work as a primary care family nurse practitioner. At presents, there is a growing shortage of primary care clinicians which is regarded as a major contributing factor to the discrepancy between the demand for care and supply of primary care healthcare providers. Family nurse practitioners have a long history of providing primary care to patients in the United States. It has been broadly documented by recent studies the importance of family nurse practitioners’ role in multiple clinical settings, particularly in primary care. Undoubtedly, family nurse practitioners are well equipped and trained in a variety of arenas, particularly in disease prevention, health promotion, counseling, patient education, health maintenance in addition to be well educated in the management of acute and chronic illnesses, making them the perfect fit to practice not only in primary care, but a diversity of other clinical settings as well (Poghosyan, Liu & Norful, 2017).
In my opinion, the benefits associated with the use of nurse practitioners in primary care are overwhelming. Typically, nurse practitioners tend to spend more time with patients and their evaluation of patients is performed in a more comprehensive fashion and in accordance with patient’s healthcare needs. Moreover, nurse practitioners have a high predisposition to engage in inter-professional collaboration in order to ensure excellent patient outcomes and improved quality of care. In addition, they have the ability to appropriately refer patients in complex cases and they are often easier to get appointments with. Lastly, nurse practitioners services are less expensive which often contribute to a significant reduction of costs associated with healthcare services and fewer visits to emergency departments. According to the results of recent studies, family nurse practitioners excel at providing holistic, coordinated and continuous care to patients of all ages through a comprehensive examination of social, physical, psychological and physical aspects of patient care (Poghosyan et al., 2017).
In summary, as a family nurse practitioner in primary care I can perform most services that physicians provide, often at a lower cost and in a more comprehensive and individualized approach. According to the results of multiple studies I was able reviewed, the implementation of family nurse practitioners in primary care has been growing over the past decade as a way to address increasing patient demand and improve care delivery. In this particular setting, I will be able to implement evidence-based strategies learned during my training as a nurse practitioner to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs without compromising quality of care in addition to fill an important gap caused by the urgent need for primary services in the United States.
References
Poghosyan, L., Liu & J., Norful, A. A. (2017). Nurse practitioners as primary care providers with
their own patient panels and organizational structures: A cross-sectional study. Int J Nurs Stud. 2017; 74:1-7. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.05.004.
