Role of Family Nurse Practitioners: Case Study The shortage of primary care physicians has been a problem in health care system and will continue to the next decade due to increasing of aging population. According to National Governors Association (NAG) (2012), the growth of the aging population combined with the initiative of the Affordable Care Act, the problem of primary care providers shortage is worsening. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are educated and prepared to perform primary care services as physicians do. More importantly, studies showed that NPs’ role as primary care providers achieve equal or higher patient satisfaction rates (Evangelista et al., 2011, Albers-Heitner et al., 2013). These studies illustrates that NPs can play a key role in providing services to health care market. NPs provide a full range of high quality care to patients of all ages. These services include primary care, acute care, special health care services such as oncology, gerontology health, or women’s health to name a few (American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), 2015). NPs practice in many health settings, including private physician office, hospital, urgent care site, emergency room, community health center, school, and others. Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) are NPs are primary care providers who focus on …show more content…
JR was a new graduate APN and started his first FNP position at this office. KC worked closely with JR, guided him on the scope of FNP practice, policies and procedures within and outside the office, including e-prescription and referral letter. KC and JR also discussed about JR’s reflective learning and how JR could have done better. KC ensured JR that his skills will be better later on. At the beginning, KC suggested that JR should see approximately 3 patients in an hour; as he became more familiar with FNP role, he should spent about 15 minutes per