Practitioner Education (practitioner + education)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Integrating Evidence-Based Practice in Nurse Practitioner Education

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 12 2004
APRN-C, FAANP, Mary Jo Goolsby EdD
ABSTRACT This column normally focuses on a specific clinical practice guideline (CPG). This month's column deviates from that practice to demonstrate how evidence-based practice (EBP) was integrated into the nurse practitioner (NP) curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Processes of EBP were linked to student clinical assignments across core NP clinical courses, culminating in a student-published CPG. When students research and analyze available scientific evidence for a CPG, they learn to critically evaluate and logically organize knowledge for use in clinical practice, and those critical-thinking skills can lead to improved clinical reasoning and decision making. [source]


The times they are a changin

JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2009
Cert Ed, MIKE THOMAS PhD
Aim, A discussion paper outlining the potential for a multi-qualified health practitioner who has undertaken a programme of study incorporating the strengths of the specialist nurse with other professional routes. Background and rationale, The concept and the context of ,nursing' is wide and generalized across the healthcare spectrum with a huge number of practitioners in separate branches, specialities and sub-specialities. As a profession, nursing consists of different groups in alliance with each other. How different is the work of the mental health forensic expert from an acute interventionalist, or a nurse therapist, from a clinical expert in neurological deterioration? The alliance holds because of the way nurses are educated and culturalized into the profession, and the influence of the statutory bodies and the context of a historical nationalized health system. This paper discusses the potential for a new type of healthcare professional, one which pushes the intra- and inter-professional agenda towards multi-qualified staff who would be able to work across current care boundaries and be more flexible regarding future care delivery. In September 2003, the Nursing and Midwifery Council stated that there were ,more than 656 000 practitioners' on its register and proposed that from April 2004, there were new entry descriptors. Identifying such large numbers of practitioners across a wide range of specialities brings several areas of the profession into question. Above all else, it highlights how nursing has fought and gained recognition for specialisms and that through this, it may be argued client groups receive the best possible ,fit' for their needs, wants and demands. However, it also highlights deficits in certain disciplines of care, for example, in mental health and learning disabilities. We argue that a practitioner holding different professional qualifications would be in a position to provide a more holistic service to the client. Is there then a gap for a ,new breed' of practitioner; ,a hybrid' that can achieve a balanced care provision to reduce the stress of multiple visits and multiple explanations? Methods, Review of the literature but essentially informed by the authors personal vision relating to the future of health practitioner education. Implications for nursing management, This article is of significance for nurse managers as the future workforce and skill mix of both acute and community settings will be strongly influenced by the initial preregistration nurse education. [source]


Reconceptualizing the core of nurse practitioner education and practice

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 1 2009
BC (Professor), Mary E. Burman PhD
Abstract Purpose: The movement to the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) is progressing rapidly with new programs emerging and curricular documents being developed. We argue that the implementation of the DNP is a good move for nursing, provided that we use the opportunity to reconceptualize the core of advanced practice nursing, especially nurse practitioner (NP) practice. Data sources: Theory and research articles from nursing focused on advanced practice nursing, NPs, and doctoral education. Conclusions: The foundation of NP education is currently based essentially on borrowed or shared content in assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. We argue that the heart and soul of nursing is in health promotion, both in healthy persons and in those dealing with chronic illness. Current master's programs do not prepare NPs to assume high-level practice focused on health promotion and disease management using the latest theoretical developments in health behavior change, behavioral sciences, exercise physiology, nutrition, and medical anthropology. Although these are touched upon in most NP programs, they do not represent the core science of NP education and need to be a critical part of any DNP program. Implications for practice: Ultimately, our vision is for NP care to be consistently "different," yet just as essential as physician care, leading to positive outcomes in health promotion and disease management. [source]


Sustainability of change with quality general practitioner education in adolescent health: a 5-year follow-up

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 6 2005
Lena Sanci
Objective, To determine whether improvements gained in general practitioners' (GPs') self-perceived competency, attitudes and knowledge after an intervention in adolescent health care designed with evidence-based strategies in continuing medical education, are maintained longterm, 5 years post intervention. The intervention was designed with evidence-based strategies in continuing medical education. Design, We carried out a follow-up postal survey of the cohort of metropolitan Australian GPs trained in the intervention 5 years previously. Measures, Subsets of the original measures, used in the randomised controlled trial of the intervention, were selected to re-assess the GPs by postal survey. Self-perceived competency, attitude and knowledge were measured. Doctors were also asked about further training in adolescent health over the 5 years since the intervention and about self-reported practice. Results, A total of 46 of 54 (85%) of the original intervention group returned a questionnaire. Scores at 5 years were all higher than at baseline (P < 0.01) and improvements were sustained in all measures from 12 months to 5 years after the intervention. In all, 25/46 (54%) doctors had received further training in related areas over the 5 years, but this did not improve sustainability. A total of 45/46 (98%) reported maintaining their clinical approach to youth and 22/46 (46%) reported maintaining practices to address systemic barriers to adolescent health care access. Conclusions, Quality education designed according to evidence-based strategies of effectiveness has advantages for longterm sustainability. [source]


Relational care: learning to look beyond intentionality to the ,non-intentional' in a caring relationship

NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2007
Dennis Greenwood PhD MSc BA RN
Abstract, This paper considers the implications for nursing practice of what the continental philosopher Emmanuel Levinas described as the ,non-intentional'. The place of the non-intentional emerges from a critique of Buber's conception of the ,I-Thou' and the ,I-It' relations, and is revealed to a person in the moments prior to the grasping of conscious understanding. A specific incident that took place between a nurse and a person diagnosed with dementia is described and then used to illustrate an exploration of the ,I-Thou' relation and then the non-intentional. The nurse practitioner's pre-understandings of the term dementia are shown to have hindered the emergence of an ,I-Thou' relation and the possibility of a non-intentional glimpse of the otherness of the other. It is suggested here that the plausible associations that become synonymous with a diagnosis like dementia detract from attentiveness to another ,person'. The more tangible an understanding of another person becomes, the less likely it is that a person can really experience the other as separate to their perception of them. The implications for practitioner education and learning in relation to the non-intentional are considered, in particular the need to reflect on the immediacy of the feelings experienced in a relationship. The non-intentional highlights how ,I', as a nurse practitioner, can exclude the other by imposing an understanding on what is seen and experienced in relation to another person. The ,I' prioritizes intentional understanding and so obscures the importance of the spontaneous response to the tear in the eye of the other, which is the basis for Levinas's conception of the non-intentional. The spontaneity of the non-intentional is what Levinas believed confirmed the separateness and autonomy of the other and consequently should be the basis for a therapeutic nursing relationship with a patient. [source]


Opioid analgesic prescribing and use , an audit of analgesic prescribing by general practitioners and The Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at Royal Brisbane Hospital

BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2001
L. M. Nissen
Aims, This study evaluated the use of and need for opioids in patients attending the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at the Royal Brisbane Hospital (RBH). Methods, All consecutive in-patient admissions in 1998 were reviewed. A 10-point scoring system based on the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic ladder was devised to facilitate comparison of analgesic prescribing on admission and at the time of discharge. A conversion table was used to standardize opioid analgesic doses to an oral morphine equivalent. Results, Of the 370 patients reviewed, 233 (81%) were by their general practitioners. Records of 288 (78%) were available for full review and 270 (94%) of these had noncancer pain. On admission, 239 (83%) were taking an opioid analgesic, with 135 (47%) taking strong opioids (e.g. morphine, oxycodone, methadone). There was a significant decrease in the mean total daily oral morphine equivalent prescribed on discharge 36.9 mg (95% CI: 33.4, 40.4) compared with that on admission 88.7 mg (95% CI: 77.6, 99.8) (P < 0.001). There was a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the proportion of patients taking a primary opioid on discharge 153 (58%) compared with admission 239 (83%), although the proportion of patients taking a strong opioid on discharge 150 (52%) compared with admission 135 (47%) was not significantly different (P > 0.05). The proportion of patients taking a laxative showed a significant increase on discharge 110 (73%) compared with admission 38 (28%) (P < 0.05). Conclusions, Our analgesic prescribing scoring system and opioid conversion table have the potential to be developed further as tools for assessing opioid analgesic prescribing. The significant decrease in total daily oral morphine equivalents signifies the value of prescribing in accordance with the WHO analgesic ladder, and the necessity of general practitioner education. The management of chronic pain is complex, and it requires interventions additional to pharmacological therapy. Evaluation by a multidisciplinary team, coupled with experience in and an understanding of analgesic prescribing and rehabilitation provides an effective basis for improving the management of patients with chronic pain. [source]