Week 5: Knowledge Generation Through Nursing Informatics. In one of the reading assignments this week you reviewed advanced nurse practitioner (APN) roles and the application of project management concepts, one of the major elements of NI, but new to most nurses. What type of application does this have for your practice?
Advanced Nurse Practitioner
The primary roles of Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) are assessing, examining, diagnosing and prescribe their patients the required treatment and medication. According to McDonnell et al (2015), ANPs are highly educated and experienced healthcare providers who have diverse roles within the healthcare.
Their roles range from primary care to critical types of care in intensive units. On the other hand, Harris et al (2018) assert that healthcare projects are a significant part of patient care since they significantly contribute towards improving patient care.
ANPs are also tasked with the role of carrying out medical projects. Therefore, it is imperative that ANPs have a good grasp of project management concepts taking into consideration that these concepts are a crucial part of nursing informatics.
Project management entails the procedure of organizing and leading team members through informed directives in an effort to attain the formally defined and agreed goals and objectives of a certain project. Within a healthcare facility setting, it is vital to note that healthcare projects call for teamwork and it is hardly possible for an individual to execute them single-handedly.
Basing on a study conducted by Harris et al (2018), the authors assert that carrying out projects should be part and parcel of every employee within a healthcare sector and the contribution of each employee is significant regardless of the magnitude of contribution (Harris et al. 2018).
Currently, my nursing practice is bedside medical surgery though upon completion of my studies I would like to become a nurse practitioner which is a sub-segment of advanced nurse practice. The organization at which I am carrying out my nursing practice is performing well though there is continued effort by the organization find mechanisms that will provide registered nurses (RNs) with conducive environments that will motivate them to carry out projects that will improve safety and quality patient care. For instance, there are still challenges in my department and I believe through projects, solutions will be attained.
One of the strategies being employed to motivate nurses into carrying out medical projects is by rewarding nurses who have successfully completed a particular set of projects whether wholly or through contributions. Most of the information that aid in conducting projects are drawn from electronic health records.
Considering that ANP is a core element of nursing informatics, it is also the role of ANPs to generate and integrate data, knowledge, and information to help in improving the healthcare sector. In my organization, data generated from EHR aids in understanding the causation of conducted projects.
Since I am aspiring to further my studies and become an ANP, the lessons garnered from project management concepts will be of significant importance to my future practice. Some of the key project management concepts that will be very useful are skills in organizing, offering directives to team members and coming up with strategies that will see the successful completion of projects.
The leadership quality embedded upon advanced nurse practice will be imperative in my future practice as I will understand how to deal with different kinds of people from diverse natures of life. I have learned that when directing a team, it is crucial that team members are motivated and given a sense of ownership so that they consider their contribution to a project valuable.
Therefore, the project management concepts and leadership roles garnered as an ANP, I will ensure that I constantly motivate my team members into carrying out projects as if it is theirs and by doing this, I am confident that I will lead my team into producing numerous successful projects.
References
- Harris, J. L., Roussel, L. A., Dearman, C., & Thomas, T. (2018). Project planning and management. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
- McDonnell, A., Goodwin, E., Kennedy, F., Hawley, K., Gerrish, K., & Smith, C. (2015). An evaluation of the implementation of Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) roles in an acute hospital setting. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(4), 789-799.
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