Discussion 1: ANP's Prescription Role

Discussion One
Your Name
Subject and Section
Professor's Name
August 26, 2021
Understanding the role of the advanced nursing practitioner in providing care is essential for anyone who will be practicing the same in the future. It allows them to tailor their expectations and shift their learning styles and methodologies to the field and type of practice they want to pursue after their days in the academe. Accordingly, this reflection would focus on one of an advanced nursing practitioner (ANP), namely – formulating and prescribing treatments. Although it is a common misconception that the role of prescribing medication to patients is limited to physicians, the discussion that we had in class has shown that even ANPs (and other medical professionals) have a significant role in this process. All in all, I believe that the ANP has an essential role in the formulation of treatment and the prescription process in the modern-day healthcare system.
ANP's Prescription Role
One of the main functions of an ANP in the prescription process could be found even before prescription commences, in the data gathering and physical examination process. Although it might seem indirect, it is well-known that prescribing any medication or any other type of treatment without extensive history taking and physical examination would be difficult. The lack of such history-taking measures also increases the risks on the part of the patient, especially if he has any complications or comorbidities that must be taken into consideration by prescribing physician CITATION Nel19 \l 1033 (Neliyathodi & Simi, 2019). Nonetheless, this means that the ANP should possess the skills and knowledge to determine the patient's needs through extensive data gathering. This includes those, which the patient might have intentionally left out from interviews.
Another essential role of the ANP is formulating a diagnosis and establishing a viable treatment plan for the patient. Since the nursing practice is primarily oriented towards the improvement of the patient's well-being, the ANP has a role of bringing all of his knowledge and skills together in formulating a treatment plan that does not only focus on the physical improvement of the patient but also on his emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being, among others (Eriksson et al., 2018).
Aside from those provided above, conducting a risk-benefit analysis of the drug therapy chosen is another essential role of the ANP. As stated earlier, the ANP has the role of finding out the various internal and external circumstances that could affect the patient's treatment, including comorbidities and drug-to-drug interactions. For example, if the practitioner finds out that the patie...