Wk1 reply/discussion/HL

As nursing has evolved over the years, there have been many ways the profession has tried to define itself and the roles nurses play in health care.  From the infancy of nurses of the past to the high level of care nurses provide now in a healthcare setting, models have help nurses develop roles and function.  Models have guided and organized the basic belief of nursing professional roles, development of knowledge, and competencies in providing comprehensive care in the healthcare setting (Hamric et al, 2019).  One of the first models used to help distinguish the roles of the advance practice nurse was the Calkin’s model.  Developed to provide and define a difference between the level of nursing, Calkin’s model concept proposed matching the skill level of the nurse to the health problem of the patient (Hamric et al, 2019).

Calkin’s model in today's healthcare environment still rings true. There are different levels of nurses working at different levels of patient care.  From the Licensed Practical Nurse to Registered Nurse to Nurse Practitioners each has a role at a different level of care for the patient.

Currently working as a Registered nurse, I have a defined role to play in healthcare.  Looking toward the future, working as a Nurse Practitioner having an understanding of my new role will give me a new and more guided understanding, by expanding my knowledge base and working at a higher level of care as expressed in Calkin’s Model.

Calkin’s advantage to other models is that skills, education, and knowledge held by nurses are relative to the patient's need. Understanding the patient's needs at all levels is the framework used by scholars in the research of the function used by Nurse Practitioners (Hamric et al, 2019).  Patients arrived to us with many different needs and at all levels of pathos and over the years Calkin’s model has put care at different spectrum in perspective.  We as nurses work at one end of the spectrum but as we continue to educate, we are able to move up the spectrum to more critical patients.  As we start to learn and take on the roles of an advance practice nurses, understanding our role and how to maximize it will be key to providing complete and holistic care at every level of the patient spectrum.  Calkin’s model leaves to the other models to define the process, but Calkin’s model offers an understanding that there are differences between the level of nurses (Hamric et al, 2019). From the beginning role in nursing to the experts with mountains of experience, Calkin’s model maintains a mission of matching the care of the patient with the right level of nursing care (Hamric et al, 2019).  With nursing ever-evolving, having a defined level of care, role, and scope of practice is a fundamental base of nursing, one of the first principles of nursing learned.

So as we move forward understanding advance practice structure and how we can integrate our role as providers should be our focus moving forward.  Working as nursing professionals we have the skills, understanding, and knowledge to use these values in making sure we are meeting the needs of the patient.