Becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner: Challenges, Strengths, and Goals

Background and Clinical Experience

My name is A. E. and I am on the FNP track.  I have been a nurse for 12 years and have worked in transitional care units and hospital nursing.  I currently work in the hospital as a medical-surgical float pool nurse. 

The World Health Organization (2014) classifies young people as individuals 10 through 24 years of age.  Pediatric providers are uniquely qualified to address developmental and physical health care needs into young adulthood (Heuer et al., 2019).  In transitioning from a nurse to a family nurse practitioner, one will have strengths and challenges.  I would have to say that my strengths include my years of clinical experience, devotions to patient advocacy/empowerment, my interpersonal communication skills, penchant for providing care to people, and commitment to being a successful team player.  My challenges as they apply to pediatrics and being a Family Nurse Practitioner would be getting accustomed to working within a wider scope of practice, working at a slightly slower pace at the beginning in order to get into the rhythm of things, and becoming familiar with dealing with pediatric patients and their parents.

Working in the hospital has exposed me to the increasing acuity levels of patients and just the overall increase in patient illnesses.  This has sparked a desire to be involved in primary care.  I want to do my best in helping to keep people healthy and to prevent the need for hospitalization.  I also want to strive towards being of service to those in underserved communities.  Ensuring that children have access to qualified pediatric health care providers is as crucial in improving outcomes as other variables contributing to child health outcomes (Gigli et al., 2019).  COVID-19 has placed a magnifying glass on the longstanding healthcare disparities in underserved communities.  “The COVID?19 pandemic also highlighted structural vulnerabilities in the U.S. health system, including inequities in care for minority and rural populations.  Rural residents are at an increased risk for morbidity and mortality once diagnosed, as rural hospitals have fewer specialized providers, limited or no acute care capabilities, and are less resilient to staffing shortages and financial hardship” (Stucky et al., 2019, p. 2).

I believe that this class will provide me with both the knowledge and skills related to dealing with the pediatric population.  Thus, helping me to become much more well-rounded in my clinical experience and propelling me to become an effective family nurse practitioner. 

Learning is a lifelong journey that I do not take lightly. The expectations that I have for this course are the same that I have had since I began my graduate studies, "to impart the knowledge of my professor into my wheelhouse so I can reach my full potential as an incredible nurse." Lifelong learning is crucial, and a nurse practitioner must continue learning to remain composed and provide our patients with quality care that is evidence-based (Marshall, 2020). Growing up in poverty and overcoming the lack that surrounded me in the public school system made me desire to help myself escape cycles and patterns and create a pathway to uplift others.

One of my biggest challenges when working with pediatrics is dealing with overt and subtle parents or guardians for patients that I provide care for; however, I maintain my professionalism and always advocate for my patients to receive the best care possible; I have had to endure several instances of my credentials being questioned as well as being verbally attacked (Ulusoy & Schablon,2020).  I find this to be difficult as it happens with more with the parents of the patients more often than other age demographics. The challenge in that is not internalizing the hate that can get spewed at me. I still have feelings, and thankfully my family racially socialized me as a child, which acts as my inoculant to ignorance in a combination of me recognizing that patients are scared and ill and sometimes need a target for their emotional turmoil. On the other hand, one of my biggest strengths when working with pediatrics is my tireless effort to administer the best care possible. Often I would travel to certain facilities through the pool and see how other nurses are not as skilled or are unprepared to do the functions of the roles required in nursing.

My goal is to graduate from this program and open up an agency that trains the future generation of Certified Nursing Assistants and Licensed Nurse Practitioners. I believe that building a school with this specialty can allow me to create an Afrocentric program centered on caring for the elders within the black community, this in combination with encouraging others to care for community elders, can help reshape `some of the trauma within the black community (Asonye et al., 2020).