Nursing inquiry
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Nurse practitioners (NPs) are increasingly called on to provide high-quality health-care particularly for people who face significant barriers to accessing services. Although discourses of social justice have become relatively common in nursing and health services literature, critical analyses of how NP roles articulate with social justice issues have received less attention. ⋯ In our analysis, we draw on lessons learned from the initial Canadian experience with the introduction of NPs in the 1970s to consider the renewed and burgeoning interest in NPs in Canada, Australia and elsewhere. As we argue, a critical social justice perspective (in addition to the biomedical foci of NP practice) will be essential to sustaining long-term, socially responsive NP roles and achieving greater equity in health and health-care.
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Acute care nurse practitioner roles have been introduced in many countries. The acute care nurse practitioner provides nursing and medical care to meet the complex needs of patients and their families using a holistic, health-centred approach. There are many pressures to adopt a performance framework and execute activities and tasks. ⋯ Praxis influences how relationships are structured with patients, families and colleagues in the work setting. Decision-makers at different levels need to recognize the contribution of praxis in the full development of the acute care nurse practitioner role. Different strategies can be used by educators to assist students and practitioners to develop a praxis framework.