End of Life Care Assignment Essay

 End of Life Care Assignment Essay

 End of Life Care Assignment Essay

Nurses play a critical role in patient care including palliative care. They fill in the gaps in the long-standing shortage of healthcare workers in their respective specialties. Although registered nurses and nurse practitioners are involved in patient care, their roles and responsibilities greatly differ. A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who has gained an expert knowledge base and possesses complex decision-making skills and clinical competencies for a wider scope of practice (Bakerjian et al., 2022). In contrast with registered nurses who are primarily involved in direct patient care, they are tasked with additional clinical and leadership roles.

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A nurse practitioner is well suited to provide palliative end-of-life care and advanced care planning. Some of the core competencies required of a nurse practitioner include leadership, ethics, independent practice, direct individual clinical care, research, consultation, education, and the healthcare delivery system (Bakerjian et al., 2022). Regarding end-of-life care,  nurse practitioners are tasked with facilitating and leading discussions on advanced care planning and goals of palliative care, optimization of patient comfort through symptomatic control, and provision of care after death (Vellani et al., 2021). They perform these responsibilities not in isolation but through collaboration among the healthcare teams.

Other features that distinguish nurse practitioners from registered nurses have also been identified. Nurse practitioners generally practice autonomously in a broader scope of care, have a situated practice, and can offer medical management (Collins et al., 2019). They can independently offer care to meet the patient’s needs even during imminent death without supervision from clinicians. This primary patient care includes diagnosis, treatment, and even prescriptions. Registered nurses, however, provide direct patient care depending on treatment plans formulated by nurse practitioners and other appropriate care providers such as physicians. Prior experience as a registered nurse in direct patient care will inform the decision-making as a leader at the organizational level.

References

Bakerjian, D. (2022). The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Leadership Role in Nursing Homes. Nursing Clinics Of North America, 57(2), 245-258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2022.02.011

Collins, C., & Small, S. (2019). The nurse practitioner role is ideally suited for palliative care practice: A qualitative descriptive study. Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal, 29(1), 4-9. https://doi.org/10.5737/2368807629149

Vellani, S., Boscart, V., Escrig-Pinol, A., Cumal, A., Krassikova, A., & Sidani, S. et al. (2021). Complexity of Nurse Practitioners’ Role in Facilitating a Dignified Death for Long-Term Care Home Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal Of Personalized Medicine, 11(5), 433. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11050433

 

How do you think your role as NP will differ from your role as RNs in terms of end-of-life care and advanced care planning? How do you think your experience as an RN will help you?