[Development trends and future challenges in community nurse practitioner]

Community health nursing is an innovative aspect of healthcare that has grown in response to changing environmental and social structure changes into a worldwide movement. Taiwan's fast growing elderly population, improving health technologies and rising healthcare costs impact significantly upon the development and definition of the scope of practice for community health nurse nurses. This paper explores the innovative community care model development experiences of several countries and reviews the scope of practice of community health nurse practitioners in each. We further explore the current situation of nurse practitioners in Taiwan and suggest a future path for Taiwan community health nurse practitioners development and policymaking.

Transitions to and from nursing facilities

Many nursing home transition barriers are manmade and avoidable. PPACA is encouraging improvement and reduced unnecessary hospitalizations through incentives and penalties. Providers are responding through a variety of internal and collaborative models. The resulting communication, technology, education, and emphasis can improve the quality of life for the people served.

A survey evaluating the current role of the nurse practitioner in urology

The role of the nurse practitioner (NP) continues to expand into the care of specialty populations. This article presents results of a survey that allowed NPs who self-identified as working specifically with people diagnosed with urologic conditions to describe their clinical role. The purpose of identifying NP-specific clinical tasks was to provide evidence to be used in revising the urology specialty certification examination for NPs.

Nurse practitioner-led prostate biopsy in the United Kingdom

As prostate cancer detection rates increase, multi-professional health care teams with nurse practitioners are adopting some roles that have predominantly been in the medical domain. This article reports the development of nurse practitioners undertaking prostate biopsies in the United Kingdom and presents an audit demonstrating the safety of nurse practitioners conducting this procedure.

Nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants in physician offices

The expansion of health insurance coverage through health care reform, along with the aging of the population, are expected to strain the capacity for providing health care. Projections of the future physician workforce predict declines in the supply of physicians and decreasing physician work hours for primary care. An expansion of care delivered by nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), and physician assistants (PAs) is often cited as a solution to the predicted surge in demand for health care services and calls for an examination of current reliance on these providers. Using a nationally based physician survey, we have described the employment of NPs, CNMs, and PAs among office-based physicians by selected physician and practice characteristics.