NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

The Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) degree comprises numerous concentrations in the Nursing major, as outlined below. The MSN degree meets the educational eligibility requirements for national certification in the respective concentration.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) are integral members of medical care teams, with the skills and knowledge to both deliver and coordinate medical care for patients across the lifespan. FNPs typically provide primary and preventative care services, such as routine check-ups, immunizations, and patient advocacy and education. In addition to directly providing primary care services, FNPs develop comprehensive health plans for patients, monitor patients’ medical outcomes, and supervise registered nurses (RNs) and medical assistants. FNPs collaborate with and may work under the supervision of a physician; however, 21 states and the District of Columbia currently allow FNPs and other types of certified nurse practitioners to work independently and even set up their own private practices.

Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP (AGPCNP) students develop advanced practice nursing competencies in health promotion, risk detection, illness prevention, and management of acute and chronic illnesses in adults and older adults. Clinical experiences involve direct care in collaboration with other health professionals to maximize the effectiveness of community and health care system services.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Clinical practica include primary care offices, such as internal medicine and family practice clinics, managed care offices, emergency departments, free clinics, and long-term care and occupational health settings.

In this role, you may be employed in primary care offices including internal medicine and family practice, clinics, managed care offices, emergency rooms, free clinics, and occupational health settings.

Family nurse practitioners have the distinct advantage of receiving intensive training to provide care to individuals of all ages. Their broad knowledge of human development and health across the lifespan can provide a useful foundation for addressing both simple and complex health problems. FNPs can work in a wide variety of medical settings, including both primary care and specialized departments of hospitals, private practices, walk-in clinics, and community health centers. Depending on their professional experiences and areas of interest, FNPs can also work in secondary and tertiary care settings with patients encountering severe or complex medical conditions.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) provide mental health services and medication management to patients in both inpatient and outpatient health care settings. PMHNPs’ responsibilities are very similar to those of a psychiatrist in that they typically prescribe medications, monitor patient progress on these medications, and incorporate psychotherapeutic modalities into their sessions with patients. Inpatient psychiatric settings include emergency departments and acute inpatient psychiatric units. PMHNPs in intensive inpatient settings tend to focus on patient safety, short-term stabilization, and creating a psychiatric treatment program that enables patients to continue addressing their mental, physical, and behavioral health challenges after discharge from inpatient care. Outpatient psychiatric settings include outpatient behavioral health centers, community health clinics, and private practices. PMHNPs who work in outpatient care typically provide medication prescriptions, consultations, and ongoing management, as well as psychotherapy to patients both individually and in groups.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Mental health is both a crucial and an underappreciated aspect of people’s overall well-being; individuals who struggle with psychological, emotional, and behavioral issues may find that their mental health dramatically impacts their ability to function optimally in social, professional, and familial settings. The stigma around mental illness and the fact that many health insurance companies do not prioritize behavioral health can also prevent many people from seeking the help that they need. Due to these and other factors, advanced psychiatric mental health nursing can be a very impactful field, as PMHNPs support individuals in very great need, with the goal of empowering them to address their mental health challenges and build healthy habits so that they can function well in society.

Using the most extensive database of nurses, target the local talent pool to market your facility and recognize the vast contribution nurses make to patient care. Show local nurses that you’re the company that loves its Nurses.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Choose your package and Katon will help craft your Nurses Week message, develop creatives, and get them in front of nurses in your area. We can help you show local nurses how much your facility recognizes Nurses’ skills and compassion.

Two types of academic programs lead to RN licensure: associate degree programs (ADN) and baccalaureate programs (BSN). Both programs prepare individuals to give direct patient care, but graduates of an ADN program have more limited career mobility.

The baccalaureate degree is required for public health nursing, school nursing and most supervisory positions at the unit manager level, and to enter most graduate nursing programs. In Illinois, a master’s degree in nursing is required to teach in ADN, BSN or graduate-level nursing education programs.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

College of DuPage students interested in pursuing the bachelor’s degree in nursing can earn an Associate in Science (A.S.) degree while they fulfill all prerequisites for admission to a BSN nursing program. The Pre-Nursing program has been developed for this purpose. The ADN Nursing program, described in another program guide, is designed for students who plan to practice as a registered nurse (RN) immediately after graduation. Other educational institutions offer degree-completion programs for ADN nurses who later decide to pursue their BSN. Degree-completion programs generally can be completed in four to six semesters.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Job Description and Career Opportunities

RNs provide direct care and treatment for patients, supervise, and work as members of interdisciplinary teams in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, home health services, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, ambulatory clinics and physicians’ offices. Bedside services that RNs provide include injections, blood transfusions, intravenous feedings and dispensing of medications. BSNs also work in the public schools, in supervisory/managerial positions in nursing, and in the health department where they perform comprehensive health appraisals and provide patient education.

To practice as an RN, individuals must graduate from an accredited two-year associate degree program (ADN) or four-year baccalaureate program (BSN) and pass the national licensing examination. An RN must have a baccalaureate degree for employment as a public health nurse or school nurse, and for most supervisory/managerial positions at the unit manager level and above.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Chest x-rays are an invaluable diagnostic tool as they can help identify common respiratory disorders such as pneumonia, pleural effusion, and tumors, as well as cardiovascular disorders such as an enlarged heart and heart failure. As an advanced practice nurse, it is important that you are able to differentiate a normal x-ray from an abnormal x-ray in order to identify these disorders. The ability to articulate the results of a chest x-ray with the physician, radiologist, and patient is an essential skill when facilitating care in a clinical setting. In this Discussion, you practice your interprofessional collaboration skills as you interpret chest x-rays and exchange feedback with your colleagues.

·        Review Part 10 of the Buttaro et al. text in this week’s Learning Resources, as well as the provided x-rays.

·        Reflect on what you see in the x-ray assigned to you by the Course Instructor.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

·        Consider whether the patient in your assigned x-ray has an enlarged heart, enlarged blood vessels, fluid in the lungs, and/or pneumonia in the lungs.

By Day 3

 

Post  APA format (picture of xray attached below saved in jpeg and pdf)

 

1.     A description of what you see in your assigned patient x-ray. (both normal and abnormal findings)

2.     Then, explain whether the patient has an enlarged heart, enlarged blood vessels, fluid in the lungs, and/or pneumonia in the lungs.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

To become psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, registered nurses must complete a graduate nursing program with a concentration in psychiatric mental health nursing at an institution that has been accredited by either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). During their program, students must also complete a minimum of 500 hours of clinical practicum in settings relevant to inpatient and/or outpatient psychiatric care. After graduating, prospective PMHNPs must pass a national certification exam administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and also consult their state board of nursing in order to determine and obtain any requisite state-based licensing prior to practicing.

PMHNPs can also work in specialized inpatient settings. Inpatient psychiatric treatment programs and facilities typically require patients to attend behavioral therapy sessions during the day, and also consult with psychiatric professionals such as psychiatrists and PMHNPs to discuss, develop, and implement an effective medical treatment plan. Different tiers of inpatient psychiatric care serve patients with varying severities of mental illness. Examples of inpatient psychiatric care settings include but are not limited to:NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

• Psychiatric Hospitals, also known as psychiatric wards, are subunits of larger hospitals and medical centers that serve patients specifically suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and/or chemical dependency. Patients may be admitted on a voluntary or involuntary basis to psychiatric wards, and once admitted, they typically receive intensive and multidisciplinary psychiatric and medical care, including medication management, 24/7 monitoring, and mental health counseling and support.
• Residential Treatment Programs include substance abuse treatment programs, eating disorder treatment programs, and programs supporting patients with severe anxiety and/or depression. Residential treatment programs are one step down from psychiatric wards in that they serve patients who are not an immediate danger to themselves or others, but who nevertheless need considerable psychiatric support and structured care.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Relative to emergency departments, inpatient psychiatric settings provide longer-term care to patients who are struggling with complex psychiatric/mental health and behavioral problems. In addition to providing psychological counseling and medication management, PMHNPs may also assist in their patients’ transition from inpatient settings to outpatient care or home.

When elaborating further on her role at John Muir Behavioral Health Center, Ms. Myers explained how her work with patients suffering from chemical dependency involves progressive work, typically over the course of several weeks, to help patients detoxify from their substance abuse, build better self-care habits, and work to address their addiction. “I perform psychiatric evaluations on chemical dependency patients who are hospitalized on the inpatient detox unit. I assess them for the presence of mood disorders and other psychiatric complications and determine whether or not psychiatric medications are indicated and prescribe them as needed. I monitor the patients daily as detox progresses and titrate medications as indicated,” she said, “I also manage patients and their medications once they are discharged to the outpatient and residential chemical dependency treatment programs […and] facilitate educational groups for patients on the unit on topics such as anxiety management, sleep hygiene, medications commonly used in detox, etc.”NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinics and Centers

Outpatient behavioral health settings treat patients experiencing psychological, emotional, and behavioral health problems that are not so severe that they require inpatient treatment, but which negatively impact their daily life. These clinics can also receive patients who have completed treatment at an inpatient treatment facility and are ready for a lower level of care, but who still need structured support.

Outpatient behavioral health settings include clinics that are affiliated with a larger medical center, or behavioral health centers that stand alone and provide counseling and psychiatric services. Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners who work in these settings seen patients for sessions during which they may provide psychological counseling and medication management services. Levels of outpatient care can range from intensive outpatient to routine outpatient care:NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

• Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) and Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP), also known as Day Treatment Programs, are a step down from residential treatment programs in that patients are not housed at a facility, but instead travel to a hospital or other treatment setting to attend structured psychiatric counseling and receive medication management services. PHPs and IOPs are largely equivalent in terms of the treatment services provided, with the main difference being the number of hours required for patient attendance (PHP is generally more than IOP).
• Routine Outpatient Care (ROC) is the least intensive level of psychiatric care, and consists of individual and group therapy sessions that patients attend on an as-needed basis, according to their own schedule. Depending on the patient’s needs, ROC may also include medication counseling and management.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Outpatient psychiatric care often involves a longer-term patient-provider relationship, relative to inpatient settings where the primary goal is stabilization and de-escalation of very severe conditions. Andrew Penn, RN, NP, CNS, PMHNP-BC is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner III at The Permanente Group in California, where he has worked in outpatient psychiatry for over a decade. “In my clinic at Kaiser Permanente, I am part of a team that is comprised of psychotherapists (Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Psychologists), another Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Registered Nurses, and Psychiatrists,” he explained in an interview with OnlineFNPPrograms.com, “In my particular clinic, my responsibilities are very similar to those of my psychiatrist colleagues–we all see patients for initial intake assessments, start and monitor medications, and follow these patients over time.”NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Private Practices

Another outpatient setting that employs PMHNPs is psychiatric private practices. Depending on their state of residence and their individual certifications and qualifications, PMHNPs may also be able to establish their own private practices. Registered nurses who are interested in becoming PMHNPs and creating their own private practices should check with their state’s regulations around independent practice for nurse practitioners.

Psychiatric private practices typically provide psychological counseling by appointment and medication management services to clients struggling with mental, emotional, and behavioral health issues. PMHNPs in private practice settings typically collaborate with a team comprised of one or more psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, licensed clinical social workers, and other PMHNPs. In private practice settings, PMHNPs prescribe medications, provide individualized counseling on ways that patients can manage their mental and emotional conditions in conjunction with medical treatment, and make adjustments to patients’ medications as needed.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Community Health Centers

Community clinics and health centers provide free or low-cost/sliding scale psychological and behavioral health counseling and support to members of the community. These outpatient care settings may offer individual and group counseling sessions on a by-appointment and/or walk-in basis. As the mission of community health clinics is to provide affordable care to the community at large, PMHNPs who work in these settings will often encounter different patient populations than if they were to work in private practices or specialized clinics in hospitals.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Laura Hickman, MSN, FPMHNP-BC is a Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who works at Southwest Behavioral & Health Services (SBH), a network of community-based mental health centers. Ms. Hickman also worked at a variety of private practices during her MSN program, and in an interview with OnlineFNPPrograms.com, she explained the distinction between private practice settings and community health clinics. “Most clients in the private practice world are two-income households and are raising children that may be struggling with ADHD or Autism, or mom or dad may be struggling with anxiety or depression. The needs of these clients are much different than the patients in community mental health, who struggle with finances, chronic health conditions, low education levels, domestic violence, lack of health care knowledge or treatments, chronic pain, and substance abuse, alongside with a mental health diagnosis,” she said, “This is not to say that there are not these struggles in private practice, but the day-to-day challenges are more prevalent for those served in community mental health.”NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Telemedicine Settings

Telemedicine is a growing field, with nurse practitioners and other providers across various specialties engaging in remote patient appointments and consultations more frequently in order to meet the growing need for timely medical advice, prescriptions, and services. Outpatient psychiatric mental health is a field that may lend itself well to telemedicine services, as psychological evaluations and counseling are typically completed through patient discussions and interviews rather than physical examinations.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

In addition to her in-person work with patients at an outpatient clinic, Ms. Hickman works at SBH’s Tele Medicine Payson Clinic, where she conducts psychiatric evaluations and medication consultations and management, serving patients in rural areas and those who are unable to commute to a medical center. “Tele-medicine utilizes video and audio to communicate with clients that may not have services available to them in their area,” she explained in her interview with OnlineFNPPrograms.com, “The provider speaks with the client via video connection, much like Skype or Face Time, and is live and interactive. Interview techniques and establishing a relationship with the client are tailored via tele-medicine, and is fully capable of meeting the treatment needs of the client.”

Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners can work in emergency departments and other acute care settings, where they assist with the patient intake and triage process by conducting mental health evaluations and providing psychiatric stabilization and support to patients who need it. Some emergency departments have a designated section with a separate staff of mental health professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and stabilize patients.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

The care that PMHNPs provide in emergency settings is typically short term, with the aim of stabilizing the patient before his or her transfer to inpatient clinics, an outpatient clinic, or home. PMHNPs also assist with the discharge and/or transfer of patients to acute inpatient or intensive outpatient psychiatric settings if needed. They work in collaboration with physicians, other nurse practitioners, critical care nurses, social workers, medical assistants, and other intensive care staff.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Charlie Myers, MSN, PMHNP-BC is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at John Muir Behavioral Health Center (JMBHC), where she cares for patients with chemical dependencies. Prior to this role, she worked in the Emergency Department and the Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In an interview with OnlineFNPPrograms.com, she described how the nature of her work and the patient population she served in the Emergency Department and the Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Unit differed from those of her current position at JMBHC. “At Johns Hopkins Medicine, I worked performing psychiatric evaluations in the emergency room as well as admitting patients to the acute psychiatric unit and performing psychiatric consults on the medical floors. The types of patients I saw were more varied in their diagnoses and often much more psychiatrically unstable than the patients I see at John Muir Behavioral Health,” she said.NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

Ms. Myers also noted that, unlike the patients she treats at JMBHC, the patients who were admitted into the Emergency Department and the Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at Johns Hopkins often posed a danger to themselves and/or others due to the severity of their psychiatric condition. “At JMBHC, I work mainly with patients who are suffering from chemical dependency and are undergoing treatment for detox. While they may have comorbid psychiatric conditions, they are not a danger to themselves or others such as the patients I was caring for at Johns Hopkins,” she said, “The patients I am caring for at JMHBC are all in the program on a voluntary basis, while many of the patients I was caring for at Johns Hopkins were in treatment and under involuntary psychiatric holds due to being a danger to self or others or gravely disabled due to psychiatric illness.”NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper

To become board certified FNPs, licensed RNs typically must complete a Master’s of Science in Nursing program that is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), fulfill a certain number of clinical hours, and pass an examination administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).NURS 6531 – Advanced Practice Care of Adults Across the Lifespan Assignment Paper