J Korean Clin Nurs Res.  2020 Aug;26(2):217-231. 10.22650/JKCNR.2020.26.2.217.

Job Performance of Advanced Practice Nurses, Perceived Difficulty and Importance, and Willingness to Legally Delegate Clinical Practices to Advanced Practice Nurses by Health Care Professionals

• Choi AJ
• Choi SJ
• Kim ES
• Park JH
• Won SY

• KMID: 2505972
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22650/JKCNR.2020.26.2.217

Abstract

Purpose
To identify the clinical role of Advanced Practice Nurses (APN), and evaluate how other medical personnel perceive their work(difficulty, importance).
Methods
A questionnaire survey was performed with 277 health care providers (APN 52, nurses 88, and medical doctors 137 [professors 51, fellows 44, & residents 42]) in a single, tertiary hospital. The questionnaire was categorized into 6 domains (total 40 tasks): 6 tasks on identifying health issues (A); 3 tasks on prescribing and conducting diagnostic tests (D); 18 tasks on disease treatment (T); 4 tasks regarding prescribing medicine (M); 3 tasks regarding medical collaboration (C); 6 tasks regarding patient education (E). The survey measured the frequency, difficulty, and importance of APN’s clinical tasks, and evaluated the willingness of authorizing clinical tasks to APN. Results: The most frequent tasks for APN were A domain, lowest were T domain. The scores for perceived job difficulty were lower than those for job importance in all groups. The proportion of willingness to legally delegate clinical practices to APN was higher in A and E domains, but lower in D and T domains. However, professors, who spent the most time with APN, showed a higher willingness to legally delegate clinical practice. The participants favored medical doctors as substitutes for tasks which were not legislated for delegated job performance.
Conclusion
In this study identified clinical roles that medical doctors considered possible for legal delegation to APN were identified. The results can be used as evidence for the legalization of the practice of APN.

Keyword

Nurse Practitoners; Work Performance; Scope of Practice; Personnel Delegation; Health Personnel