Discussion 2

As nurses you have all learned the importance of clinical decision making, critical thinking and clinical judgement to making effective and safe patient care decisions in practice. As you move into your role of advanced practice nurse whether that is leadership and management or NP, how does this change? Does it? This week read through some of the articles provided about how nurses and advanced practice nurse make decisions in practice. 

1. Is there a difference between the skills required by the bedside nurse and those needed by APN? Support the discussion with rationale and readings. 
2. As you transition to your role as an APN what clinical decision-making skills do you feel are needed for nurses planning to be NP? Nurse leaders? Support this with course readings and other academic literature. Are these different, if so why or why not? 
3. What standardized decision-making tool has been created to guide nurses at all levels to make practice decisions? Why was this created, what is the purpose of the tool? How would this be used in your role as an APN; be specific and describe how to apply this tool. Are there other standardized clinical decision-making tools to guide NP/APN to make decisions in practice? Should these be employed and/or are they employed in all care setting for NP? Provide a rationale. 
4. Explain your rationale. Describe the role of the Consensus Model for APRN.