Time and NP Practice: Naming, Claiming, and Explaining the Role of Nurse Practitioners

- Health care delivery models are changing.
- Nurse practitioners (NPs) provide a unique model of care delivery.
- Nursing philosophy and assumptions underpin NP practice.
- NP practice is complex and takes time.
- NPs are empowered to explain the unique contributions and outcomes of NP care.

This is a new era in primary health care with models of care focused less on number of patients seen per hour to one grounded in both patient satisfaction and outcome-based care. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are well positioned to achieve high marks under such criteria provided they can make the case for what they actually do. Nursing's profession-based philosophy of care underpins NP practice and contributes to good outcomes. Naming, claiming, and explaining the role of NPs are 3 actions steps that NPs are empowered to enact right now.