Role Development, Implementation and Evaluation of Nurse Practitioners

Hospitals face new challenges in providing sustainable high quality care as the prevalence of chronic conditions, multimorbidity and the complexity of care increases. The high burden on healthcare teams, the growing costs and the increasing scarcity in healthcare providers (HCPs) result in unmet needs of patients and their families and a high workload on HCPs. Worldwide there is growing recognition that new care models integrating nurse practitioners (NPs) in interdisciplinary teams could contribute to respond to these challenges. ANP is defined as an "advanced practice nurse (APN) who integrates clinical skills associated with nursing and medicine in order to assess, diagnose and manage patients in primary healthcare settings and acute care populations as well as ongoing care for populations with chronic illness". Despite the proven benefits of integrating NPs in interdisciplinary teams, the introduction of NPs in Belgium is at an early stage. Advanced practice nurses, including NPs, are formally recognized in Belgium since 2019, but there is still no legal framework in which additional rights or agreements compared to other nursing groups are defined. Given the early stage of introduction, little is known about the development, implementation and impact of NPs in the Belgian health care context. Insights in implementation processes and the effectiveness of NP roles at different levels can inform healthcare managers and policy makers for future (nation-wide) implementation in a hospital setting. The overall objective of this longitudinal pre-post mixed methods study is to develop, implement and evaluate the integration of the role of NPs in four different departments in a Belgian university hospital.