Reply to my peer
Peer 1
Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Learning Opportunities
The role of a nurse practitioner (NP) requires an undergraduate nurse to undergo a pivotal transition from student or beside nurse into an independent health care practitioner. The transition process can be an overwhelming experience for many practitioners. Newly graduated NPs have expressed feelings of uncertainty, role confusion, and novice autonomy associated with transition to practice. Many health care disciplines, such as pharmacy and medicine, have competency-based residency and fellowship programs to facilitate a confident transition into practice (Klein & Lugo, 2018). As a student nurse practitioner, I find myself questioning the resources that will be available to guide my transition into the NP’s advance practice role. In order ensure success in my future career as an NP, I would like to better understand the barriers and requirements for developing post-graduate learning, such as nurse practitioner residency/fellowship programs.
Lack of support or isolation has been identified as factors that hinder the novice nurse practitioner. Duchscher’s Shock Theory can be applied to the developmental, professional and emotional challenges that novice NP undergoes. The shock of the role change from expert RN to novice NP creates feelings of confusion and doubt as responsibilities changes towards a provider level. Nurse residency programs not only aid in confidence for the new NP, but they assure high-quality, safe healthcare through periods of preceptor oversight (Mounayar & Cox, 2021). A practical example for NP post-graduate learning is optimizing NP decision-making to improve antibiotic prescribing. Antibiotic prescribing trends by provider type from 2005 to 2010 revealed that broad-spectrum antibiotic agents decreased for physicians and increased for NPs and physician assistants. Newly graduated NPs need more education in antibiotic stewardship into order reduce the incidence of antibiotic resistance. The need exists to communicate and educate patient about the difference between bacterial and viral infections and resist the pressure to prescribe unnecessary antibiotic for patient satisfaction (Knobloch et al., 2021).
Library research strategies will include completing database searches for research articles and academic journals that examine the positive effects of post-graduate education programs for newly transitioning NPs. Also examining current problems among new NP due to lack of support and mentorship during their role transition.
Reference
Klein, T., & Lugo, R. (2018). Evaluating Prescribing Competence in Nurse Practitioner Fellowship and Residency Programs. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 14(10), e197–e205. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2018.08.021
Knobloch, M. J., Musuuza, J., Baubie, K., Saban, K. L., Suda, K. J., & Safdar, N. (2021). Nurse practitioners as antibiotic stewards: Examining prescribing patterns and perceptions. AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.01.018
Mounayar, J., & Cox, M. (2021). Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Residency Program: Best Practice. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(4), 453–457. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.10.023
Peer 2
My role specialization is Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). A problem that I would like to investigate through nursing research is the mental strain and fatigue on nursing during the pandemic. Nurses have always had a heavy load, but the weight of the pandemic has intensified this load. I hope that through my research I can identify ways to help nurses that are experiencing any mental health issues and offer counseling and help that is much needed.
I used the South University online library and searched with the Evidence-Based research from the Savannah: EBM Resources. I found two articles, Strategies to reduce the anxiety and depression of nurses in the special wards of COVID-19 and Prevalence of depression and its impact on quality of life among frontline nurses in emergency departments during the COVID-19 outbreak. The articles both identify and provide evidence of the existence of the problem with the pandemic and emotional disorders, especially in nurses. In the face of catastrophic emergencies such as COVID-19 and under the influence of various mental and objective factors, frontline medical staff, especially nurses, can show some psychological disorders in response to stress, (Naeim et al., 2020). The lives of front-line medical staff have been disrupted in different ways. Exposure has caused families to stay apart during quarantine leading to psychological needs. Due to the requirements of separation and disinfection, medical staff are forced to wear special clothing that increases their safety, but consumes a lot of energy and leads to severe oxygen deficiency, which leads to physical and psychological symptoms, (Naeim et al., 2020). The pandemic is causing mental distress in healthcare workers along with patients. According to, (An et al., 2020) Depression was common among ED nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article also considers the negative impact of depression on the quality of patient care therefore a high sense of urgency and awareness needs to be brought to this matter.
Potential innovation that I would consider as a solution to the problem would be more counseling available to nurses. I would like new tools to identify nurses that are exhibiting burnout behaviors at work and integrate a system to intervene before they give up without seeking help.
References
Naeim, M., Rezaeisharif, A., & Bagvand, S. G. (2020). Strategies to reduce the anxiety and depression of nurses in the special wards of COVID-19. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(6), 529–530. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.028
An, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, A., Li, Y., Zhang, Q., Cheung, T., Ungvari, G. S., Qin, M.-Z., An, F.-R., & Xiang, Y.-T. (2020). Prevalence of depression and its impact on quality of life among frontline nurses in emergency departments during the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Affective Disorders, 276, 312–315. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.047
