The Role Of The Four Advanced Practice Registered Nurses

One can explore a variety of specialties in the field of nursing. Amongst them are four significant roles of advanced practice that perform and provide a great amount of care to the population beyond the status of Registered Nurse (RN). The four Advanced Practice Registered Nurses are Nurse Practitioners (NP), Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), and Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNM). “Advanced practice RNs represent about 8 percent of the nursing workforce,” (Kurtzman & Naylor, 2010) and about 70 to 80 percent of advanced practice RNs work in primary care facilities, specializing in pediatrics, adult health, gerontology, and nurse midwifery (Kurtzman & Naylor, 2010).
Nurse practitioners (NP) are one
They are allowed to order diagnostic tests and prescribe treatments and medications, unlike clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse midwives. Nurse practitioners work in a variety of different settings that encompass variable term care, such as hospitals, physician’s offices, clinics, and community care. In doing so, they provide care for a great range of individuals including infants to the
Nurse anesthetists were one of the earliest advanced practice roles in the United States (Blais & Hayes, 2011, pg. 449). Individuals in this career field have an extensive amount of classroom and laboratory instruction in the delivery of anesthesia to patients in a variety of different healthcare settings. Some of a CRNA’s tasks and duties include “performing physical assessment, participating in preoperative teaching, preparing for anesthetic management, administering anesthesia to keep the patient free of pain, maintaining anesthesia intraoperative, overseeing recovery from anesthesia, and following the patient’s postoperative course from recovery room to patient care unit” (Blais & Hayes, 2011, pg. 451). The crucial priority of the CRNA is to provide the most optimal care to ensure the health and safety of all patients undergoing