Advanced Practice Professional Nurses

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Pages: 11

Abstract

This paper serves as a review of the multitude of nursing roles available to the graduate-level nurse. Additionally, since the conception of modern-day nursing by Florence Nightingale, and the opening of the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas Hospital in London, England in 1856 (book 4), the need for advance nurses has always been present. As physicians within healthcare noticed a need for help, roles began expanding for nurses at the bedside, as seen in the efforts to aide soldiers in the Crimean War. The nursing field has made tremendous strides, and this paper will explore those strides made through the different roles that have been created. The nursing roles that will be reviewed within this paper are the following:
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As with the origins of nursing as a profession, much of the nursing profession and its progression stems from Florence Nightingale and the Civil War. During the war, the need for both nurses and surgeons was at an all-time high. The advanced clinical nurse roles began when nurses received infield training from surgeons by way of administering anesthetics for physicians. Nurse anesthetist has its origins as early as the 1800’s when anesthetics were first created. However, as surgery grew during the civil war and there was a decrease in the amount of physicians willing to administer anesthetics, nurses began to step into this role. This led to the creation of The American Association of Nurse Anesthetist (AANA) in 1931 (NCBI 8). Licensed credentials came about twenty years later, but nurses first began working in an advanced role as nurse anesthetist for surgeons. Additionally, patients found that nurses working with physicians increased patient care and overall satisfaction (book). Dr. Henry Silver and Dr. Loretta Ford founded the first nurse practitioner program in 1965 at the University of Colorado. In addition to nurse anesthesia and nurse practitioner, a few other advanced practices were formed including nurse-midwifes and clinical nurse specialists. Nurse-midwifery has been recorded since the earliest documented births. A woman by the name of Mary Breckinridge is known for the founding of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) that was focused on the training of mother-baby specialty in 1925 (book). Clinical nurse specialists work in an advanced nursing role, specifically clinicians, within a specialized field. For example, psychiatric nurse practitioners obtained the first graduate level advanced practice specialty in 1954 (book). While the above discussed specialties are all