Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) are nurses with a master’s, post-masters, or doctoral degree in a nursing specialty. They have acquired the expert knowledge base, complex decision-making skills and clinical competencies for expanded practice, and in most states, they can practice medicine without the supervision of a physician. There are generally four types of APRNs: Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP), Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) (DeNisco & Barker, 2013). Although each of these routes require different training and advanced skill sets, they must possess the same foundational knowledge, comprehensive critical thinking skills, and good decision-making skills (Buppert, 2011; DeNisco et al., 2013).The work environment for advance practice nurses varies greatly. These advanced practice nurse nurses can be found across a spectrum of clinical settings ranging from the inpatient hospital setting to outpatient cosmetic centers. Their target population and salary will vary greatly depending upon the specialty, setting, and regional area in which they practice. The same can be said for their level of accountability and scope of practice. Which also varies greatlydepending on the state in which they live in. In the following sections I will describe the four types of advance practice roles and their pros and cons. I will start off with the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS). CNSs work within a specialized area of nursing practice such as cardiac, oncology, neonatal, pediatric, and obstetric and gynecological nursing. They provide direct patient care, assess and treat holistically the entire needs of the patient from wellness to illness (Brassard & Thompkins (2014). Pros: they work in supervisory roles, administrative positions and as researchers (Kaplow, Shapiro, & Higgins, 2017). They practice across the span of health care delivery systems, including hospitals, clinics, private practice, schools, nursing homes, corporations and prisons. In 28 states,
they practice independently, and prescribe independently in 19 states. They have a lot of
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- Spring '12
- Nursing, Advanced practice nurse, Registered nurse, clinical nurse specialist, Nursing specialties
