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Nurse Practitioner Role

Student’s Name

Course

Institution Affiliation

Date
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Nurse Practitioner Role

The article aims to look at the discussion in the Netherlands about the growth of the nurse

practitioner profession. The benefits and drawbacks of nurse practitioners working in the

medical field have been discussed in the Netherlands since the position was established in

1997. The debate's conclusion is critical for nurse practitioners' professional growth and

society's justification of their responsibilities. From 1995 to 2012, a review of 14 policy

documents, 35 nurse opinion papers, 363 physician opinion pieces, and 24 Dutch research

publications on nurse practitioners was conducted (Koper et al., 2018). Two discourses

emerged: one about efficiency and the other about professional growth. Both offered the nurse

practitioner position to solve healthcare and workforce issues, but the reasons varied.

The efficiency debate appeared to have the greatest clout. Nurse practitioners' perspectives

were underrepresented, and taking on additional duties was motivated by enhancing patient

care (Maier et al., 2018). While most doctors were ready to assign duties to nurse practitioners,

they insisted on having ultimate authority over medical treatment. All accessible publications

were thoroughly examined, but unpublished policy papers from the government or important

parties were excluded. Thus, this may have resulted in some discrimination. The Netherlands'

experience demonstrates that nurses in developing advanced roles face comparable challenges

as those in other countries. The dominance of efficiency arguments coupled with the

preservation of medical autonomy stifles progress toward patient-centered nursing care. Nurse

practitioners should aim for positions where they may make their own choices and make the

best use of healthcare resources to benefit patients and society (De Bruijn-Geraets et al., 2018).
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Nurse practitioners should strive to join important healthcare boards in their nations to speak

out and participate in policymaking.

One of the weaknesses identified is that Netherlands' experience demonstrates that nurses

in developing advanced roles face comparable challenges as those in other countries (Van

Dipten et al., 2018). The dominance of efficiency arguments mixed with the safeguarding of

medical autonomy stifles progress toward patient-centered nursing care.

The study by the author is credible as nurse practitioners should aim for positions where

they may make their judgments and make the best use of healthcare resources for the benefit

of patients and society. Nurse practitioners should strive to join prominent healthcare boards in

their nations to speak out and participate in policymaking.

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References

De Bruijn-Geraets, D. P., van Eijk-Hustings, Y. J., Bessems-Beks, M. C., Essers, B. A., Dirksen,

C. D., & Vrijhoef, H. J. M. (2018). National mixed-methods evaluation of the effects of

removing legal barriers to full practice authority of Dutch nurse practitioners and physician

assistants. BMJ Open, 8(6), e019962.

Maier, C. B., Batenburg, R., Birch, S., Zander, B., Elliott, R., & Busse, R. (2018). Health

workforce planning: which countries include nurse practitioners and physician assistants and

to what effect? Health Policy, 122(10), 1085-1092.

Koper, I., Pasman, H. R. W., & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D. (2018). Experiences of Dutch

general practitioners and district nurses with involving care services and facilities in palliative

care: a mixed-methods study. BMC health services research, 18(1), 1-9.

Van Dipten, C., van Berkel, S., de Grauw, W. J., Scherpbier-de Haan, N. D., Brongers, B., van

Spaendonck, K., & Dees, M. K. (2018). General practitioners’ perspectives on management of

early-stage chronic kidney disease: a focus group study. BMC family practice, 19(1), 1-7.