The hospital nurse practitioner in pediatrics. A new expanded role for staff nurses
H. K. Silver, M. A. Murphy and B. A. Gitterman
The Hospital Nurse Practitioner Program in Pediatrics at the University of
Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, prepared staff nurses for a new
and expanded role as health care providers in hospital settings. With the
use of their increased skills and greater decision-making responsibilities,
hospital nurse practitioners admitted patients to the hospital, assessed
both the initial clinical status and subsequent changes in the patient's
condition, wrote relevant orders, performed a variety of technical
procedures (including many previously reserved to house staff and other
physicians), ordered and interpreted laboratory studies, counseled patients
and families, discharged patients, and provided other traditional nurse
practitioner skills. Hospital nurse practitioners had an improved
collaborative relationship with physicians. This program showed that
hospital nurse practitioners can be as significant in affecting the health
care that patients receive on the general units of hospitals, as are nurse
practitioners who deliver care and services to ambulatory patients.