Sanne Smulders, Geke Dijkstra, Anneke van Vught, Nienke Bleijenberg, Nynke Boonstra, Evelyn Finnema
Advanced Nurse Practitioners primarily work within their own practice setting, fulfilling various roles in community healthcare that align with the CanMEDS roles used in nursing and medical education. The combination of the nursing and medical domains yields a distinct level of performance, which defines the Advanced Nurse Practitioner domain in community healthcare. Owing to the diversity in role fulfilment among Advanced Nurse Practitioners and the absence of a unified vision, job crafting requires further elaboration and refinement.
AIM: To explore how Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) perceive and enact their role in community care and to provide insights into their role as described from their own views and experiences.
DESIGN: A qualitative, descriptive study.
METHODS: Online focus group discussions. Quotations were coded inductively and categorized by group codes to account for meanings in answers, fragments and words. Group codes were grouped into themes.
RESULTS: 27 Advanced Nurse Practitioners participated. Various role-related themes were identified, including one main role: the Hybrid Professional, who acts as a liaison by utilizing network-based competencies and combining competencies from the nursing and medical domains.
CONCLUSION: Advanced Nurse Practitioners primarily work within their own practice setting, fulfilling various roles in community healthcare that align with the CanMEDS roles used in nursing and medical education. The combination of the nursing and medical domains yields a distinct level of performance, which defines the Advanced Nurse Practitioner domain in community healthcare. Owing to the diversity in role fulfilment among Advanced Nurse Practitioners and the absence of a unified vision, job crafting requires further elaboration and refinement.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND PATIENT CARE: Advanced Nurse Practitioners working in community healthcare settings are hybrid professionals who act as liaisons, combining aspects of both the nursing and medical domains. The results of this study will impact Advanced Nurse Practitioners in community care, supporting their network-based competence, empowering job crafting and enhancing their role positioning. A shared international understanding and a unified vision of the Advanced Nurse Practitioner role, along with its alignment with other healthcare professionals, are essential for situating the role within a broad interprofessional context.
REPORTING METHOD: The COREQ checklist was used for reporting.
PATIENT OR PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT: This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct or reporting.