Nurse
Practioners (ARNP or NP) first came to existance in 1965 in order
to improve access to health care. Since then, Nurse
Practitioners have provided health care that improves access
to all ages. Nurse Practitioners have advanced education
at the graduate level including extensive clinical work and medical
internships in primary care and specialized curriculum. An
ARNP provides a range of primary and specialty services within a
framework of professional standards and is educated and trained to
work independantly in patient care. Advocating health
promotion and disease prevention, ARNPs assess, diagnose, manage
both acute and chronic illnesses, perform medical
procedures, act as First Assists in surgery,
and prescribe perscriptions of pharmacological and
non-pharmacalogical modalities. "The weight of evidence
indicates that, within their areas of competence, NPs... provide
care whose quality is equivalent to that of care provided by
physicians, " according to the US Congress, Office of Technology
Assessment.
