ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSES

Advanced practice nurses, usually educated at the graduate degree level, provide health care to individuals, families and groups. Their practice emphasizes health promotion, disease prevention, assessment and clinical management. Advanced practice nurses are educated to exercise a high degree of independent judgment, complex clinical decision making, and skill in managing organizations and health care environments (ANA, 1996). They are educated to provide services that include but are not limited to:

• Advanced physical assessment

• The selection and performance of appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic procedures

• Ordering and interpretation of laboratory tests

• Diagnosis of clinical conditions

• Prescription of and administration of pharmacological agents, treatments and nonpharmacologic therapies

• And provision of education and counseling for individuals, families and groups (ANA, 1992).

The skills needed to provide these services are now basic to advanced practice nursing education and should no longer require medical delegation, protocols or supervision.