Week 2 Discussion Board

Running head: WEEK TWO DISCUSSION BOARD

Week Two Discussion Board

May 27, 2010

Conceptual frameworks for advanced practice nursing play an integral role in the guiding of practice, formulating educational curricula, and the overall development of the specialty. The continued evolution of advanced practice nursing has seemingly sparked numerous conceptual models influencing practice. Many models share common similarities, while each maintains their own unique characteristics specific to their developers and contributors.

Ann Hamric developed Hamric’s Integrative Model of Advanced Practice Nursing in 1996, that has undergone two subsequent revisions in response to research, variations in practice, and theoretical influence. The resiliency of Hamric’s Model is exemplified by its continued presence in advanced practice nursing literature (Hamric, Spross, & Hanson, 2009). Hamric’s model presents a foundational approach to advanced practice nursing that is generalizable among all specialties of advanced practice nursing. The structural basis for Hamric’s model shares many similarities with Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization. Hamric centralizes a foundation in education, certification, and experience that is built upon to develop central and core competencies. These competencies are patient focused and all encompassing of actions that take place in the healthcare setting. Like Maslow’s strive for self-actualization, where one must progressively satisfy personal needs that rang from the basic biological needs to those that stimulate our intellect, one must accomplish primary criteria before progressing to the central competency of patient care, and finally becoming proficient in core competencies of the healthcare environment (Simms, Irwin, & Drinnien, 1987). Hamric, however, goes one step further to include environmental factors that play influence to an APN’s role.

The personal use of Hamric’s Model as a guide for...