If you've been to the hospital or polyclinic recently with a regularly ailment of flu, fever or cold, you might be attended by a nurse and what is technically known as Advanced Practice Nurse (APN). According to an ST article on August 26, 2009, APNs are registered nurses who hold master's degrees in nursing and have undergone an APN internship.
They are qualified to:
- take health histories
- conduct physical examinations
- diagnose and treat comnmon ailments, like coughs and diarrhoea, and chronic ailments like diabetes
- interpret test results such as blood sugar levels
- provide health teaching and counselling
- manage medications
From a knowledgement management (KM) point of view, it is improving customer service by reducing waiting times, directing quality resources (doctor's care) to where is needed most/more, leveraging on nurses' tacit expertise accumulated through years of practice that junior doctors otherwise do not have, giving nurses their due recognition as frontline operatives and driving innovation to the landscape of care in Singapore healthcare sector. Who says nurses aren't as qualified?
But would you want to be attended by a nurse?
7 comments:
Here's the story as reproduced from ST:
http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20090116-115150.html
I don't think this is something new, take a look at this article, the previous link i posted was from Jan 2009 and this here is Aug 2009:
http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20090827-163858.html
Somehow, it just does not feel safe at the thought of having a nurse attending to you.
Perhaps there ought to be a stricter guideline in place to help lay people like us who may not be able to know even if the wrong diagnosis was given to us.
I would think that it is fine. As a doctor with countless patients to attend to daily, I would think that such an act and initiative can go a long way to help ease Doctors' burden to treat simple and direct illnesses.
Besides, Nurses are well-trained in Singapore and the Government is also pushing for higher education for Nurses.
You may not have heard about the Singapore Nurse Association. Do find the link below to find out more about its Mission and Values:
http://www.sna.org.sg/site/
Oh, i found some new information and downloads on articles and papers from the Singapore Nurses Association.
Thanks Mr Lee for sharing, it definitely can aid me in my nursing career, espcially now that I am pursuing my Degree in Nursing!
And all of us may find this useful:
http://www.sna.org.sg/site/gale-online-database/gale-online-database.html
I would think that being treated by a nurse is alright, judging from their experience at work. They have the tacit knowledge that some doctors may not even have. That's similar for us, as social workers, we also help in doing some ad-hoc for the elderly when required.
It's great that we have positive responses to people accepting care from nurses. We also know that it's impossible for all people to accept this new concept.
If you want to know a bit more about what we do, you can go to my webpage and take a look.
http://nursecollegiality.blogspot.com/search/label/APN%20Roles
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