Beyond competencies: Practice standards for emergency nurse practitioners-A model for specialty care clinicians, educators, and employers

Abstract

Background/purpose: The growth of advanced practice nursing specialties requires additional expertise for practice that goes beyond entry-level competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities. A practice standards model for specialty nurse practitioners (PSMSNPs) is introduced that differentiates entry-to-practice population foci competencies from advanced specialty practice standards.

Objectives: (a) Differentiate competencies and practice standards in context to specialty NPs using the emergency specialty as the exemplar, (b) articulate the process to develop the PSMSNP that evolved from an evidence-based practice analysis of NPs working in emergency care, (c) apply the PSMSNP for adaptation to other specialties, and (d) provide implications for the utilization of the PSMSNP by educators, clinicians, and employers.

Data sources: American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board's Practice Analysis of Emergency Nurse Practitioners, Consensus Model for APRN Regulation, Future of Nursing report, Peer Nursing Report, Strong Model of Advanced Practice, Entrustable Professional Activities, Emergency Medicine Milestones Project, and the Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing report.

Conclusions: The PSMSNP has been defined and adapted to other specialties and threaded through other models of practice for educators, clinicians, and employers. The adaptability of this model differentiates the core population foci and unique practice variables of specialty NPs. National boards of nursing, hospital credentialing committees, colleges, and universities can use this model to establish standards for specialty evaluation and guide clinical practice.

Implications for practice: The implementation of the PSMSNP will support the delineation of the specialty. This model will fulfill the American Nurses Association and Consensus Model specialty constructs.