Advance Practice Nursing
introduction
“Advance Practice Nurse (APN) is an umbrella term given to a Registered Nurse who has acquired the expert knowledge base, complex decision-making skills and clinical competencies for extended practice”. This definition of APN was adapted from International council of Nurses’ in 2005 by Singapore nursing Board (Kannusamy, 2007). The American Association of colleges of Nursing defines advance practice nursing as licensed registered nurses prepared at the graduate level in nursing as a nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, certified nurse midwife or certified registered nurse anaesthetist to provide direct patient care. (Ruel & Motyka, 2009). As u can see, there are actually many different definitions for Advance Practice nursing depending on the countries and their settings.
The education of Advance practice nurses (APNs) started in the USA in the 1960s and the role of APN has already been implemented in approximately 24 countries, excluding the USA. (Nieminen, Mannevaara & Fagerstrom, 2011). However, in Singapore APN was introduced rather lately compared to t…