Commentary on Mantzoukas S & Watkinson S (2007) Advanced nursing practice: Reviewing the international literature and developing the generic features. Journal of clinical nursing 16, 28-37

摘要

Conceptual clarity is critical to the continued development of advanced practice nursing and to the development of the nursing profession itself (Hamric 2005). The systematic literature review by Mantzoukas and Watkinson (2007) serves to provide much welcome additional clarification on the concept of advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) by exploring and developing its generic features. Much of the literature addresses the role of the ANP (Elsom et al. 2005, Furlong & Smith 2005) without explicitly outlining the defining characteristics of the practice itself. Hence, the definitions of advanced practice from a role perspective limit understanding of the concept, ignore the existence of other roles and negate the creation of new future roles (Hamric 2000). Thus it seems preferable to define advanced practice nursing without reference to particular roles (Hamric 2005). According to Davies and Hughes (1995) advanced practice extends beyond roles and is ‘a way of thinking and viewing the world based on clinical knowledge, rather than a composition of roles’ (p. 157).