Advanced Nurse Practitioners as Advocates for Person-Centered Care in Irish Emergency Departments

Emergency departments face significant challenges in implementing person-centered care amidst structural, procedural, and narrow efficiency-focused priorities. Drawing on the Irish experience, we argue that Advanced Nurse Practitioners are well-positioned and prepared to advocate for, model, and lead the implementation of person-centered care in the emergency department. However, their potential to contribute to person-centered care in this setting has yet to be fully realized. The Person-Centered Practice Framework can enable Advanced Nurse Practitioners to address the overall care environment and its impact on the experiences of staff and patients. It provides a robust, evidence-based conceptual framework to guide and support the implementation of person-centered care. There is considerable alignment between the competencies required for advanced nursing practice and the constructs of the Person-Centered Practice Framework. Therefore, emergency department Advanced Nurse Practitioners are well prepared to advocate for, model, and lead the implementation of person-centered care in emergency departments. The aim of this paper is 2-fold; first, to examine the intersection of the Person-Centered Practice Framework and Advanced Nurse Practitioner competencies, and second, to evaluate how Advanced Nurse Practitioners can best realize their potential as advocates of person-centered care. Strengthening the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioners in emergency departments may increase patient and staff satisfaction.