Archives: Articles
An Economic Analysis of the Nurse Practitioner Role
Today’s rapidly changing health care environment directly affects nurse practitioners. NPs will be practicing in increasingly competitive situations and with mounting pressures for cost-effective services. Ignoring the issues in the health care marketplace can threaten NP survival. This article will analyze the changes in the health care system, relate the economic effects of these changes […]
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Sources of Stress for Nurse Practitioners
The purpose of this study was to identify perceived stressors and manifestations of stress in nurse practitioners practicing in Missouri and California. The greatest sources of stress reported by the entire sample (N = 80) were in the categories of time demands and role restrictions. Missouri nurse practitioners found role restriction problems significantly more stressful […]
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Physician Assistant Self-Assessment of Entry-Level Competency: A Comparison with Observations of Supervising Physicians
Purpose: The present study was conducted to gain comparative knowledge of physician assistants’ and supervising physicians’ perceptions of adequacy of physician assistant (PA) preparation at entry-level for effective practice in the primary care setting. Methods: The sample included 1,000 PAs working in their first professional employment and their supervising physicians. Each PA/physician pair independently completed […]
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A Rural-Urban Comparison of Patterns of Physician Assistant Practice
Access to primary care continues to be a concern in rural areas. The deficit of primary care providers in rural environments has the potential to increase the role of physician assistants (PAs) in the system of rural health care delivery. Little is known about the conditions, sites, and patterns of practice of PAs and their […]
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Negotiating Symbolic Space: Strategies to Increase NP Status and Value
Nurse practitioners (NPs) have an unprecedented opportunity to become key primary health care providers, yet barriers to independent practice still exist. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the practice of NPs from their perspective. Open-ended, interactive interviews were conducted with 23 NPs. Data analysis using the grounded theory method revealed that […]
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The Role of the Transplant Advanced Practice Nurse: A Professional and Personal Evolution
Rapid changes in health care toward cost-effective managed care have resulted in the evolution of the transplant advanced practice nurse to address the care needs of a specific patient population. This article describes the evolution of this role at one institution. The specific responsibilities of the transplant advanced practice nurse are delineated, and phases of […]
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Defining the Role of Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioners in Rural Nova Scotia
This article reports on a mixed methods study to define the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, by collecting the perceptions of rural health board chairpersons and health-care providers. Qualitative data were collected in telephone interviews with health board chairpersons. Quantitative data were collected in a survey of NPs, family physicians, […]
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A History of the Alaska Physician Assistant, 1970-1980
The introduction of physician assistants (PAs) into Alaska began in 1971 with seven MEDEX Northwest students, who were paired with physician preceptors for 12 months. Scores of PAs were recruited as health officers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System starting in 1974, and by 1977 the state had 200 PAs. In 1979, the Alaska Board of […]
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Managed Care Organizations’ Arrangements with Nurse Practitioners
Thirty-four of 67 MCOs in New York and Connecticut responded to requests for information on the roles, participation, and listing of nurse practitioners as primary care providers or in other capacities. MCO executives report a high degree of satisfaction with NPs who serve as their primary care providers, especially in women’s health and geriatrics, as […]
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