Concept of Advanced Nursing Practice
The term APNs was first described by Calkin (1984), who outlined the role of
advanced practice by using the Advanced Nursing Practice Model. Calkin’s definition was ‘advanced nursing practice is the deliberative diagnosis and treatment of a full
range of human responses to actual or potential health problems’ (p.27). This
advanced practice is accompanied by specialized knowledge and skills in dealing with
a human response to health problems. Later, many specialty professional nursing
organizations defined advanced nursing practice in the same way by using key
components, including graduate education, and patient/family focused practice as an
expanded role (Hickey, 2000), until 1992 the American Nurse Association Congress
of Nursing Practice approved the following definition of advanced nursing practice
(Berger et al. 1996):