A QUALITATIVE STUDY UTILIZING A FOCUS GROUP TO EXPLORE THE ROLE AND CONCEPT OF THE NURSE PRACTITIONER

This paper describes the first part of a two-stage study exploring the concept of the nurse practitioner role. By utilization of a focus gro up methodology, data were collated from a cohort of eight RCN trained nurse practitioners. The transcript from their discussion was subjecte d to a qualitative-based content analysis. Eight categories emerged fr om the data and this paper explores four of them. These are: role reco gnition, feature of the nurse practitioner role, nurse/patient relatio nship and doctor/patient relationship. As a whole the focus group disc ussion highlighted the diversity in application of the nurse practitio ner title. This in part, reflects the rapidly evolving role and the on going debate regarding the terms advanced and specialist practitioner.