Here are just a few reasons:
- People who see Nurse Practitioners for their health care often have fewer emergency room visits, shorter hospital stays and lower medication costs.
- Nurse Practitioners have been shown to provide safe, comprehensive, and cost-effective health care services equal to family physicians.
- Nurse Practitioners place a significant focus on teaching patients about their health conditions and treatment recommendations.
- Nurse Practitioners listen to patients and strive to understand how their health problems are affecting them.
- Patients of Nurse Practitioners report very high satisfaction with the care they receive.
- Nurse Practitioners can improve access to health care.
- In hospitals, Nurse Practitioners work with specialists and provide additional care to enhance recovery and a return to health. They ensure that all of the patient’s medical and nursing needs are being met while in hospital, and can ensure adequate care will be in place after discharge. They are also known for their ability to communicate, teach and counsel patients and families in these settings.
Nurse Practitioners are Master’s and PhD prepared autonomous health professionals with the competence to provide comprehensive health assessment, to diagnose health/ illness conditions, and to treat and manage acute and chronic illness within a holistic model of care. Nurse practitioners order and interpret screening and diagnostic tests, perform procedures and prescribe medications, while integrating the principles of resource allocation and cost-effectiveness, in accordance with federal, provincial and territorial legislation and policy.
If there are complex health problems or something beyond the knowledge, skills or abilities of a Nurse Practitioner, a referral to the appropriate specialist or health care provider can be made. Nurse Practitioners want each patient to get the best care possible, and sometimes that means transfer of care to a physician. In other cases the Nurse Practitioner may continue to care for a patient in partnership with a physician and/or other health care professionals.
Nurse Practitioners provide essential healthcare services grounded in professional, ethical and legal standards. Nurse practitioners integrate their in-depth knowledge of advanced nursing practice and theory, health management, health promotion, disease/injury prevention, and other relevant biomedical and psychosocial theories to provide comprehensive health services. Nurse practitioners work in collaboration with their clients and other health-care providers in the provision of high-quality patient-centred care.
Nurse Practitioners can perform comprehensive physicals (check-ups), treat illnesses, screen for health problems, and manage chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, etc. They can monitor the health of babies, children, adults, and the elderly, and treat their illnesses should they get sick. Some Nurse Practitioners can provide emergency care, and others take care of patients in hospitals, nursing homes, or specialty clinics.
Nurse practitioners are accountable for their own practice and communicate with clients about health assessment findings and diagnoses, further required testing and referral to other health-care professionals; they are also responsible for client follow-up. Nurse practitioners counsel clients on symptom management, health maintenance, pharmacotherapy, alternative therapies, rehabilitation strategies and other health programs.
You will find Nurse Practitioners in hospitals, urgent care centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, maternity clinics, community clinics, and doctor’s offices. Nurse Practitioners also work clinics in the community with a team of other health care professionals. However, the lack of a provincial funding model necessary to reimburse Nurse Practitioners for the care that they provide is limiting access to Nurse Practitioner care.
Follow along on our blog to learn more about NPs in various practice settings.
Currently, most Nurse Practitioners work in hospitals but more and more are beginning to appear in community and clinic settings. Stay tuned!
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Mundinger, M.O., Kane, R.L., Lenz, E.R., Totten, A.M., Tsai, W.Y., Cleary, P.D., et al (2000). Primary care outcomes in patients treated by nurse practitioners or physicians: A randomized trial. JAMA, 283(1): 59-68.
Ramsay, J.A., McKenzie, J.K. & Fish, D.G. (1982). Physicians and nurse practitioners: Do they provide equivalent health care? American Journal of Public Health, 72(1), 55-57.
2. Prescott, P.A. & Driscoll, L. (1980). Evaluating nurse practitioner performance. Nurse Practitioner. 1(1): 28-32.
3. Mundinger, M.O., Kane, R.L., Lenz, E.R., Totten, A.M., Tsai, W.Y., Cleary, P.D., et al (2000). Primary care outcomes in patients treated by nurse practitioners or physicians: A randomized trial. JAMA, 283(1): 59-68.
4. Horrocks, S., Anderson, E., Salisbury, C. (2002). Systematic review of whether nurse practitioners working in primary care can provide equivalent care to doctors. British Medical Journal, 324: 819-823.
5. Canadian Nurses Association (2009).Nurse Practitioner: Position Statement. Retrieved from Web Site
6. Kleinpell, R.M. (2005). Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Practice: Results of a 5-Year Longitudinal Study. American Journal of Critical Care. 14: 211-219.
VanOyen Force, M. (2009). Nurse Practitioners in acute care: Better outcomes, better care. Nurse Practitioners and PAs, 17(2): 37.
7. American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 2010. Nurse Practitioner Cost- Effectiveness. Retrieved from Web Site
*This is not an exhaustive list of references for these claims.
