Role and Setting

Vance, Eagerton, Harnish, McKie-Bell, and Fazeli (2011) define advanced nursing role as the aspect associated with advancing in skills, know-how, and functions of a nurse beyond the traditional professional boundaries. The functions often include generic ones, or those that can be performed by any medical professional, and an advanced nurse is expected to take part in self-contained tasks. Therefore, the advanced nursing role that will be discussed in this paper is the role of family nurse practitioners whose purpose is to work in parallel with other healthcare caregivers to deliver family-based care. Fundamentally, the role that will be discussed in this case is prescribing medication, which is undertaken by a family nurse practitioner.

Distinguishing the Role and How It Promotes Patient Safety

According to Lev and Chipman (2012), prescribing medication is a clinical approach as it consists of offering an actual observation and treatment of a patient’s disease instead of issues associated with experimentation. Since prescribing medication is a role distinguished as a clinical method, it promotes the patient safety because the family nurse practitioner involved is educated and skilled in this role. Dickson (2016) states that as a clinical entity, patient safety is initiated because the prescribed medication is based on the recommendation undertaken in the healthcare sector. Thus, the approach prescribing medication is a significant function that a family nurse practitioner implements to a patient. It is true because the objective of prescribing the medication is to ensure that the patient is safe. In other words, the recovery process is made easy because of the right medication.

Based on a historical point of view, physicians were the primary individuals who were tasked with the objective of prescribing medication, but the combination of nurse practitioners and family physicists had strengthened the process (Esther, 2016). The rationale of the author is to show that the prescription pattern has strengthened, which is good for health care as a whole. Furthermore, the approach of ensuring that family nurse practitioners take part in prescribing medication has been put into practice by the government of Canada to ensure that better health care in primary care (Esther, 2016).

Esther (2016) goes to the extend of indicating that medical prescriptions can be undertaken by other health practitioners, but the approach of assigning it to the family nurse practitioners is appropriate because they are educated and the process is meant to strengthen health care as a whole. Family nurse practitioners have also been assigned the task of prescribing medication for chronic conditions, which indicates that performing this task remains their responsibility. There, the contribution being initiated by the family nurse practitioners is significant because patients are in the right hands. According to Esther (2016), between the years 2000 and 2010, family nurse practitioners had limited authority to prescribe certain drugs, but since 2011, more privileges have been given to them. Therefore, they are able to do more.

At the same time, Lev and Chipman (2012) indicate that researchers in the United States have noted that the contribution made by family nurse practitioners is important because they contribute towards a better and modernized means of treatment. The author also indicates that family nurse practitioners are able to approach prescription methods cautiously, which brings positive results to the end user (Lev & Chipman, 2012). Furthermore, the authors illustrate that research undertaken by Newhouse and colleagues sums up that patients are more satisfied with medical prescriptions done by family nurse practitioners then other health practitioners (Lev & Chipman, 2012). The implication of the author is that family nurse practitioners are persons who can be trusted because they offer significant results in health care.

Furthermore, Levi and Chipman (2012) support the idea that family nurse practitioners tend to offer a safer and beneficial means of medical prescription because they implement their task based on what is right and professional. Overall, the information presented by Levi and Chipman (2012) is imperative because the importance of family nurse practitioners role of prescribing medication is clearly indicated. Thus, the authors’ perspective on medical prescription can be utilized by students and nurses in healthcare as they motivate them on the relevance of doing what is right based on the safety of a patient.

Furthermore, Vance et al. (2011) indicate that the patient in health care is in need of support from health care practitioners, especially on matters associated with medical prescriptions. The authors emphasize the importance of family nurse practitioners among the older generation as the primary care givers who are tasked with the objective of prescribing medication (Vance et al., 2011). To ascertain that the prescription method is made effective, family nurses are required to initiate tasks such as physical exercise, intellectual exercise, nutrition, sleep hygiene, social interaction, and medical drugs. Offering such a treatment is only made possible in the presence of family nurse practitioners. They have all the experience and expertise to help the patient recover effectively and with ease.

Similarly, Lev and Chipman (2012) illustrate that family nurse practitioners can generate significant results in the aspect of prescribing medication, especially for the elderly people by combining the mentioned means of treatment. The combination approach is essential because it aims at creating an individualized prescription for the patient in an effective and medical way. For the approach to be effective, the authors insist that a family nurse needs to be aware of the contents of medical prescription to prescribe what is right (Lev & Chipman, 2012). The information presented by Lev and Chimpan (2012) is significant as it shows the relevance of a family nurse practitioner on matters associated with prescribing the right medication.

The family nurse practitioner can professionally prescribe the right medication after knowing the medical background of the patient in question. Therefore, the education obtained by a family nurse practitioner puts him or her in the right position to do what is right because of the skills and education literacy acquired as a student. Consequently, the prescription of medicine is a rather difficult task that needs to be studied to initiate what is right as per the terms of health care provision (Vance et al., 2011). Thus, for the medical prescription to be undertaken well, a family nurse practitioner needs to implement the strategy of motivational interviewing (Vance et al., 2011).

The approach of medical prescription presupposes knowing more about the patient as indicated above before prescribing the safe medication. After asking the relevant questions, a family nurse practitioner is put in the position to prescribe the right medication for the patient to make certain that the patient recovers well and safely. Vance et al. (2011) show that a family nurse practitioner is significant in the modern health care sector because he or she is able to attain more information about a patient before prescribing the right and safe medication for the end user. Fundamentally, a medical prescription defines the relevance of a family nurse care giver.

At the same time, Dickson (2016) demonstrates that healthcare has had a difficult time, especially for family nurse practitioners. The author shows that healthcare practitioners such as family nurse practitioners were not permitted to prescribe medication for the patients (Dickson, 2016). Unfortunately, things were not essential in health care because of the shortage of nurses in some regions of the United States. Dickson (2016) illustrates that the 2010 Institute of Medicine report titled “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” notes that some progress has been put into practice. Currently, health care practitioners such as the family nurse caregivers have been tasked with the objective of prescribing medication to the patients, which is a fundamental aspect. The importance of the approach is that patients are able to get the right medication on time and with ease; therefore, they can recover appropriately (Dickson, 2016). The process has been made effective through the advanced type of education of earning a Master’s degree in Nursing before being looked at as fully qualified Family Nurse Practitioner with the capability to prescribe the right medication.

Conclusion

The paper has dwelled on one of the primary roles that are played by the advanced nurses in health care. The advanced nurse in this case was the family nurse practitioner and the role that has been analyzed is the approach of prescribing medication. Apparently, the approach of prescribing medication is not an easy task. Due to the shortage of nurses and the need to ensure the safety of patients, advancement in health care has been put into consideration to permit family nurse practitioners to prescribe medications to the patients.

Having a family nurse caregiver in the modern health care sector is appropriate because one is convinced that he or she will be prescribed the right medication, which will ensure safe and quick recovery. The articles analyzed for this paper show that the prescription of medication by family nurse practitioners has revolutionized the health care sector in terms of modernization and better service delivery. The process is made possible because a patient is able to get the right medication and on time without having to wait for a senior physician. Significantly, the prescription of medication is a fundamental aspect that saves life and contributes to the better patient recovery.

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