Advanced Practice Nursing Essay

Coaching should be considered a core competency of advanced practice nursing. Coaching, as defined by Hamric, Hanson, Tracy & O’Grady (2014) is a process by which an advanced practice nurse can use skills that have been learned to guide patients and families through health related issues that have been identified for the patient and can be used to improve overall health for the patient (p. 186). Since advanced practice nurses have been trained in communication skills and providing care for patients, coaching should become easier with experience, patient contact and rapport building with patients/families. The premise behind coaching should be to improve a patient’s health concerns with effective teaching and guidance. Mentoring is done
Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, and O’Grady (2014) state that through proper mentoring, issues can be addressed such as retaining staff and ensuring safer practices for patient care (p. 116). One coaching activity that an advanced practice nurse could be involved in could be as a nurse practitioner caring for a patient that smokes and continues to smoke. The nurse practitioner could use current studies and data regarding risks associated and damage/consequences of smoking for teaching/coaching tools to try to steer a patient away from continuing to smoke. Studies have been done on the effects of stopping smoking on continued and long term damage to lungs and may be used to try to persuade patients away from smoking. In terms of a mentoring activity that could be completed with a mentor could be a full patient assessment. Regardless of experience as a nurse, a new nurse practitioner may be somewhat intimidated by taking on a new role as NP and this could put strain on his/her assessment abilities and confidence. As a new NP, completing assessments under the guidance of a seasoned practitioner may benefit the new NP in terms of building confidence and learning new ways to begin the patient
213). Consultation involves providing ideas and knowledge with other health care professionals regarding the care of patients. The idea of consultation will bring together more ideas and perspectives to aid in the treatment of patients. Consultation does not always involve admitting that a particular practitioner is any way inferior to another, but does allow for practitioners with different specialties to view patients from a different platform and provide the appropriate treatment and services for the betterment of the patient’s treatment. Supervision involves a certain practitioner overseeing the care of the patient, seeking advice and consultation if necessary, and following the patient throughout the disease process to ensure positive outcomes for the patient. Collaboration, according to Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady (2014) is defined as two or more individuals working together to solve problems and attempt to meet a mutual end result for a patient or population (p. 215). Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady (2014) state that consultation needs collaboration by providers to better provide for patient needs and should increase the likelihood of positive patient results by joining several disciplines together for patient care (p.