Documenting acute care nurse practitioner practice characteristics

Acute care nurse practitioners are functioning in a health care system that is changing rapidly. Simultaneously, the ACNP role is evolving. It is imperative that ACNPs document practice characteristics to communicate effectively within the health care system. The purpose of this article is to describe the process of documenting ACNP practice. Content includes rationale for documenting ACNP practice characteristics, a description of types and sources of data to collect, a discussion of barriers to documentation, and a format for a documentation tool.