In order to provide high-quality services to the patients, Family Nurse Practitioners should possess and seek to develop the number of skills and competencies that constitute the foundation of this profession. In this regard, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties [NONPF] (2011) introduced the list of most significant (core) abilities for current and future medical practitioners. It includes such competencies as scientific foundation, leadership, quality, practice inquiry, technology and information literacy, policy, health delivery system, ethics, and independent practice (NONPF, 2011). Therefore, the current paper seeks to describe the skills mentioned above in more detail and discuss how one can attain the basic mastery of presented competencies. Moreover, it intends to explain how I will demonstrate these abilities taking scientific foundation, leadership, and ethics as an example.
Scientific foundation is the first core competency mentioned by NONPF (2011). It implies that Nurse Practitioners are able to obtain and critically analyze research-based evidence and data and integrate the new knowledge into practice through the lenses of personal experience. Leadership skills – the second competency – include the ability to foster and support positive changes in the organizations by promoting effective stakeholder communication and collaboration and incorporating innovative methods into practice. Next, quality competency suggests that medical workers should seek excellence in healthcare provision through constant improvement and analysis of best existing practices in the sphere. Moreover, professionals should be able to translate personal experiences into general knowledge (practice inquiry).
It is also important that Nurse Practitioners should be digitally competent and seek to implement modern technologies for better healthcare. Furthermore, NONPF (2011) asserts that professionals should be able to provide “the full spectrum of health care services” from health promotion to end of life care (p. 4). Finally, on the macro-level, healthcare workers should combine policy, health delivery system, and ethics competencies. They include the knowledge and consideration of ethical, legal, and social consequences of potential decisions, promotion of advanced healthcare, and analysis of the impact of the healthcare system and policy on various stakeholders.
There are certain actions that could be taken in order to attain the basic mastery in the competencies mentioned above. First of all, the current or future specialists should learn how to use academic research databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PubMed, being able to find, open and download peer-reviewed articles. In this regard, it is crucial to develop basic analytical and critical skills as they serve as the foundation for information understanding and serve as the cornerstones of evidence-based practice (Aglen, 2016). Probably, the best method to develop those skills would be reading good critical articles. One can also purchase professional non-academic journals in order to obtain information directly from other practitioners, including technological improvements in the sphere, management issues, and so on (Carrington et al., 2016).
Now, I would like to discuss how I will demonstrate my competencies taking scientific foundations, leadership, and ethics as an example. Firstly, I will occasionally read the academic journals in my sphere, such as Journal of Family Nursing, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Nurse Education Today, and so on. Secondly, in order to demonstrate my leadership qualities, I will seek to build good relations with all the stakeholders (for instance, with other workers and patients) to know their problems and exchange ideas. Finally, I will consider all the existing opinions on a certain issue to be able to present balanced and ethically uncontroversial (where possible) decisions.
In summary, the current essay identified and discussed the core competencies that Family Nurse Practitioners should possess based on the paper by NONPF (2011). They included scientific foundations, leadership, quality, practice inquiry, technology and information literacy, policy, health delivery system, ethics, and independent practice. Moreover, it was shown how the current or future professional is able to attain the basic mastery of presented competencies. Finally, it was discussed how I will demonstrate my competence in three spheres, namely scientific foundation, leadership, and ethics.
References
Aglen, B. (2016). Pedagogical strategies to teach bachelor students evidence-based practice: A systematic review. Nurse education today, 36, 255-263.
Carrington, S. J., Uljarević, M., Roberts, A., White, L. J., Morgan, L., Wimpory, D., Ramsden, C., & Leekam, S. R. (2016). Knowledge acquisition and research evidence in autism: researcher and practitioner perspectives and engagement. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 51, 126-134.
The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties. (2011). Nurse Practitioner core competencies.