Assignment Directions
Purpose: This learning activity is designed to provide the APRN with an opportunity to identify professional and practice issues from the perspective of an APRN currently practicing within the student’s specialty [population focus] track. Contact an APRN who is within your specialty [population focus] track and has been in practice for at least one year to set up an appointment for an interview. An example would be a Family Nurse Practitioner in a primary clinic setting. A poor choice would be a Family Nurse Practitioner working in a dermatology clinic, home health agency, or teaching in a nurse practitioner program. If you have questions, please contact your assigned faculty for approval. It will be helpful to the interviewee to provide questions you will be asking prior to meeting with them to facilitate a more in-depth synthesis of answers. This assignment also provides a forum for networking with an APRN who may consider functioning as a preceptor for APRN students in the future.
Guidelines:
- Contact an APRN who is within your specialty [population focus] track and has been in practice for at least a year to set up an appointment for a one-on-one interview. Let the APRN know the approximate time frame you will need for the interview, most likely around 45-60 minutes, but this may be longer depending on the questions you might have and the APRN’s responses.
- Ideally the interview will be face to face, but knowing the time constraints faced by many APRNs the interview may also be conducted with a mobile device through Skype, Google Hangouts, Face Time, etc. or on the telephone. The intent of this assignment is to actually perform an interview; thus, it is not acceptable to have the interviewee type out the responses to the questions.
- You may ask any of your own questions that you have about APRN practice and professional issues but for full credit you must number and ask the eight required questions, at least seven additional questions, and a minimum of five clarification questions.The required and additional questions are listed below. The minimum 5 clarification questions must be substantive and seek new or clarifying information for full credit.
- As a courtesy, you may send the interview questions to the APRN prior to the interview.
- This is an open ended interviewrather than a Q & A session, so the expectation is that you will follow-up to responses with clarification questions that relate to the response when applicable. For example, if the APRN responds that his/her practice is not as envisioned, explore what was anticipated and what is different.
- Following the interview, number each question and write a summary [not verbatim] of the response to each question into a word document. For the format for the write-up you will first provide the question asked and then below this provide the response. Under this same question number, follow-up questions related to the initial answer to the question are to be included and indented.
- In the introductory paragraph for this assignment include the student’s specialty track, the date and location of interview, name of nurse practitioner, specialty track, years in practice and practice location. Include the ages of patients seen, average number of patients seen daily, number of providers in the group, number of examination rooms [if applicable] and if there is on-site laboratory and x-ray capability.
- At the end of this document please include an in-depth self-reflection and critical analysis of this experience. Be sure to reflect on the following 4 questions: What did you find valuable about this assignment? Were there any answers that were surprising to you and why? Were there any identified gaps you wanted further clarification on? What were the major take away[s] and/or underlying theme[s]?
- The write-up for this assignment should be in APA format in terms of the title page, headings/subheadings & page numbers. A reference page is required within your write-up such as the NONPF competencies and/or a particular theory, etc. Because you are giving the date and the name of the person being interviewed in the introductory paragraph you do not need to cite within each response that this is a personal communication with xxxx on xxx. According to APA, personal communications are also not listed on the reference page.
- An exemplar of the write-up is provided for your benefit in the assignment tab.
- Submit to the assignment tab on or before the due date.
Questions
Required Questions [Include all 8]
- Discuss how you became interested in becoming an APRN and what university did you attend?
- In keeping up to date with current information regarding guidelines, political issues, etc. what conferences do you attend and which professional organizations have you joined?
- At your practice site what are your most common reference sources used for daily decision making? What resources would you recommend a new APRN utilize in the practice setting?
- Identify and describe your personal scope of practice as compared to your professional scope of practice. What are the differences? For example, some APRNs perform joint injections, toenail removal, etc. which is within the professional scope of practice but other APRNs do not perform these procedures.
- What is your biggest challenge professionally as a APRN?
- The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties has developed competencies for nurse practitioners as a whole and the have developed population specific competencies, except for nurse midwifery, neonatal nurse practitioner and nurse anesthetists. Which three [3] of the competencies do you feel you best meet in your practice? Also, provide an example for meeting each of the 3 competencies in your practice. [Have a list of competencies to utilize during the interview]. If you are a midwifery student utilize the American College of Nurse Midwives [ACNM] competencies found at http://www.midwife.org/ACNM/files/ACNMLibraryData/UPLOADFILENAME/000000000050/Core%20Comptencies%20Dec%202012.pdf [Links to an external site.]
- Which theory or model do you utilize to promote positive health behaviors among your patients? Please provide an example of how the theory or model is utilized. [Have a list of health promotion and behavior change theories/models to utilize during the interview].
- There are many professional organizations that an APRN can join. Which would you recommend joining & why?
Additional Questions [Choose at least 7]
- How does your current APRN practice compare to what you had envisioned as a student?
- What is your biggest challenge as an APRN in terms of patient care management?
- What do you view as the pros and cons of opening your own practice?
- What advice can you provide in terms of negotiating a contract?
- Describe your working relationship with physicians and other members of the health care team.
- What advice would you give a new graduate?
- How do you avoid burnout in your role?
- Do you precept students and what do you see as barriers to precepting?
- What areas do you wish you had been better prepared to enter practice?
- How did you overcome doubting yourself to become more confident as a new APRN?
- What are your thoughts about the DNP as the entry point for advanced practice?
- What qualities do you believe are most important to the success of an APRN?
- What challenges, if any, does the APRN’s prescriptive authority agreement [PAA] present to their practice setting?
