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Autonomy in practice: are nurse practitioner students being prepared for reality?
K A Black1, W C Dooley, S T Hersh
1Child Health Associates, Ltd., Warrenton, Virginia, USA.
Advanced Practice Nursing Quarterly
|April 17, 1998
Summary
Student nurse practitioners anticipate more professional autonomy than certified nurse practitioners actually experience. This gap highlights the need for nursing schools to develop curricula aligning with real-world practice for advanced practice registered nurses.
Area of Science:
- Nursing
- Healthcare Education
Background:
- Professional autonomy is crucial for advanced practice nurses.
- Understanding student expectations versus experienced reality is key for effective training.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between nurse practitioner students' perceived future autonomy and the experienced autonomy of certified nurse practitioners.
- To identify discrepancies in autonomy perception between students and practicing nurses.
Main Methods:
- Comparative study design.
- Examined nurse practitioner students' expectations of autonomy.
- Assessed the level of autonomy experienced by certified nurse practitioners.
Main Results:
- Practicing certified nurse practitioners reported higher levels of professional autonomy than anticipated by nurse practitioner students.
- A significant gap exists between perceived future autonomy and actual experienced autonomy.
Conclusions:
- Current nurse practitioner curricula may not adequately prepare students for the realities of professional autonomy in practice.
- Further research is recommended to inform the development of reality-based curricula for nurse practitioner programs to bridge this perception gap.