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2021 Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates
Quallich, S.A., Bumpus, S.M., Ardisson, K.M., & Lajiness, M.J. (2021). Updated competencies for the nurse practitioner working with adult urology patients. Urologic Nursing, 41(3), 126-140. https://doi.org/10.7257/1053-816X.2021.41.3.126
The role of the nurse practitioner (NP) has rapidly expanded into specialty domains. This article offers 22 updated competencies specific to the NP working with adult urology patients. The competencies are mapped to the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) population-specific foci and the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials domains, and supplement the population-focused competencies and core competencies of generalist nurse practitioners. These urology NP competencies offer a framework for progression along a continuum of three levels of urology NP skill and experience when working with adult patients, independent of specific clinical setting. This represents further description of the nuances of specialized NP practice within the specialty of urology across the adult lifespan.
Key Words
Nurse practitioner role, APRN Consensus Model, advanced practice nursing, patient-centered care, certification, competency, urology , scope of practice, knowledge base, delivery of health care.
With the rapidly growing aging population in the United States, there exists a growing need for urologic care that exceeds the capacity of presently available urologists (American Urological Society [AUA], 2014, 2021). The increasing demand for urology services in the United States and the anticipated decline in available urologists (McKibben et al., 2016), combined with restrictions on physician resident work hours and changes to primary care training requirements at a time of decreasing reimbursement for graduate medical education, created opportunities for nurse practitioners (NPs) to care for more focused populations. The NP role is ideally situated to fill this mounting need. Recognizing this need, the AUA (2014) published a consensus statement on the role of advanced practice providers (NPs and physician assistants [APPs]) within the urology specialty. The AUA updated the consensus statement in 2021 (AUA, 2021).
The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine ([IOM], 2010) supports NP expansion to specialty services. However, this movement is happening outside of academia, which has been cited as a barrier to practice (Albaugh, 2012). Further, it is allowing credentialing agencies, specialty groups, and professional organizations to develop independent role criteria for each specialty certification, creating further confusion...