APRN Roles; Integrative Ability
The W.H.O once defined health as not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. For health care workers especially nurses to adopt this concept of health in their care provision they need to take a wholesome view (Kreitzer, 2015). Nurses not only have to provide physical care that can remedy the physical body’s illnesses but psychological, spiritual, emotional and social care. Such type of care provision encompasses all aspects of human health that the nurse needs to address (Elliott, DeCristofaro, & Carpenter, 2012). To be able to provide this kind of wholesome care, the nurse needs to incorporate different levels of knowledge on human health.
Nurses need an integrative ability to be able to provide care that meets all the health requirements of the patients (Elliott, DeCristofaro, & Carpenter, 2012). The integrative ability is the one that enables the APRNs to work with families, individuals, health systems, and communities. The integrative ability involves engagement of patients as informed and empowered partners, personalizing patient care and utilizing all evidence-based treatment plans to achieve optimal health for patients (Kreitzer, 2015). So basically the integrative ability involves having a capacity to incorporate different aspects of knowledge to achieve one goal which in this case is optimum health for the patients.
The nurses who are at advanced levels of practice in integrative health and healing have been trained to work and provide leadership within multidisciplinary teams (Kreitzer, 2015). They can also work across different settings such as hospitals, community health settings, clinics and health centers, long-term care facilities, business/corporate environments, and schools. They are able o incorporate knowledge and expertise from different fields and join them for the right of providing care for the patients (Elliott, DeCristofaro, & Carpenter, 2012). Such type of care matches W.H.O’s definition of health.
References
Elliott, L., DeCristofaro, C., & Carpenter, A. (2012). Blending technology in teaching advanced health assessment in a family nurse practitioner program: Using personal digital assistants in a simulation laboratory. Journal Of The American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners, 24(9), 536-543. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00728.x
Kreitzer, M. (2015). Integrative Nursing: Application of Principles Across Clinical Settings. Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, 6(2), e0016. http://dx.doi.org/10.5041/rmmj.10200
