Reply to my peer Peer 1 Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Learning Opportunities             The role of a nurse practitioner (NP) requires an undergraduate nurse to undergo a pivotal transition from student or beside nurse into an independent health care practitioner. The transition process can be an overwhelming experience for many practitioners. Newly graduated NPs have expressed feelings of uncertainty, role confusion, and novice autonomy associated with transition to practice. Many health care disciplines, such as pharmacy and medicine, have competency-based residency and fellowship programs to facilitate a confident transition into practice (Klein & Lugo, 2018). As a student nurse practitioner, I find myself questioning the resources that will be available to guide my transition into the NP’s advance practice role. In order ensure success in my future career as an NP, I would like to better understand the barriers and requirements for developing post-graduate learning, such as nurse practitioner residency/fellowship programs.              Lack of support or isolation has been identified as factors that hinder the novice nurse practitioner. Duchscher’s Shock Theory can be applied to the developmental, professional and emotional challenges that novice NP undergoes. The shock of the role change from expert RN to novice NP creates feelings of confusion and doubt as responsibilities changes towards a provider level. Nurse residency programs not only aid in confidence for the new NP, but they assure high-quality, safe healthcare through periods of preceptor oversight (Mounayar & Cox, 2021). A practical example for NP post-graduate learning is optimizing NP decision-making to improve antibiotic prescribing. Antibiotic prescribing trends by provider type from 2005 to 2010 revealed that broad-spectrum antibiotic agents decreased for physicians and increased for NPs and physician assistants. Newly graduated NPs need more education in antibiotic stewardship into order reduce the incidence of antibiotic resistance. The need exists to communicate and educate patient about the difference between bacterial and viral infections and resist the pressure to prescribe unnecessary antibiotic for patient satisfaction (Knobloch et al., 2021).              Library research strategies will include completing database searches for research articles and academic journals that examine the positive effects of post-graduate education programs for newly transitioning NPs. Also examining current problems among new NP due to lack of support and mentorship during their role transition. Reference Klein, T., & Lugo, R. (2018). Evaluating Prescribing Competence in Nurse Practitioner Fellowship and Residency Programs.  The Journal for Nurse Practitioners ,  14 (10), e197–e205. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2018.08.021 Knobloch, M. J., Musuuza, J., Baubie, K., Saban, K. L., Suda, K. J., & Safdar, N. (2021). Nurse practitioners as antibiotic stewar.

1. Reply to my peer
Peer 1
Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Learning Opportunities
The role of a nurse practitioner (NP) requires an
undergraduate nurse to undergo a pivotal transition from student
or beside nurse into an independent health care practitioner. The
transition process can be an overwhelming experience for many
practitioners. Newly graduated NPs have expressed feelings of
uncertainty, role confusion, and novice autonomy associated
with transition to practice. Many health care disciplines, such as
pharmacy and medicine, have competency-based residency and
fellowship programs to facilitate a confident transition into
practice (Klein & Lugo, 2018). As a student nurse practitioner, I
find myself questioning the resources that will be available to
guide my transition into the NP’s advance practice role. In order
ensure success in my future career as an NP, I would like to
better understand the barriers and requirements for developing
post-graduate learning, such as nurse practitioner
residency/fellowship programs.
Lack of support or isolation has been identified as
factors that hinder the novice nurse practitioner. Duchscher’s
Shock Theory can be applied to the developmental, professional
and emotional challenges that novice NP undergoes. The shock
of the role change from expert RN to novice NP creates feelings
of confusion and doubt as responsibilities changes towards a
provider level. Nurse residency programs not only aid in
confidence for the new NP, but they assure high-quality, safe
healthcare through periods of preceptor oversight (Mounayar &
Cox, 2021). A practical example for NP post-graduate learning

2. is optimizing NP decision-making to improve antibiotic
prescribing. Antibiotic prescribing trends by provider type from
2005 to 2010 revealed that broad-spectrum antibiotic agents
decreased for physicians and increased for NPs and physician
assistants. Newly graduated NPs need more education in
antibiotic stewardship into order reduce the incidence of
antibiotic resistance. The need exists to communicate and
educate patient about the difference between bacterial and viral
infections and resist the pressure to prescribe unnecessary
antibiotic for patient satisfaction (Knobloch et al., 2021).
Library research strategies will include completing
database searches for research articles and academic journals
that examine the positive effects of post-graduate education
programs for newly transitioning NPs. Also examining current
problems among new NP due to lack of support and mentorship
during their role transition.
Reference
Klein, T., & Lugo, R. (2018). Evaluating Prescribing
Competence in Nurse Practitioner Fellowship and Residency
Programs.
The Journal for Nurse Practitioners
,
14
(10), e197–e205. https://doi-
org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2018.08.021
Knobloch, M. J., Musuuza, J., Baubie, K., Saban, K. L., Suda,
K. J., & Safdar, N. (2021). Nurse practitioners as antibiotic
stewards: Examining prescribing patterns and perceptions.
AJIC:
American Journal of Infection Control
. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.01.018

3. Mounayar, J., & Cox, M. (2021). Nurse Practitioner Post-
Graduate Residency Program: Best Practice.
The Journal for Nurse Practitioners
,
17
(4), 453–457. https://doi-
org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.10.023
Peer 2
My role specialization is Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). A
problem that I would like to investigate through nursing
research is the mental strain and fatigue on nursing during the
pandemic. Nurses have always had a heavy load, but the weight
of the pandemic has intensified this load. I hope that through
my research I can identify ways to help nurses that are
experiencing any mental health issues and offer counseling and
help that is much needed.
I used the South University online library and searched with the
Evidence-Based research from the Savannah: EBM Resources. I
found two articles, Strategies to reduce the anxiety and
depression of nurses in the special wards of COVID-19 and
Prevalence of depression and its impact on quality of life among
frontline nurses in emergency departments during the COVID-
19 outbreak. The articles both identify and provide evidence of
the existence of the problem with the pandemic and emotional
disorders, especially in nurses. In the face of catastrophic
emergencies such as COVID-19 and under the influence of
various mental and objective factors, frontline medical staff,
especially nurses, can show some psychological disorders in
response to stress, (Naeim et al., 2020). The lives of front-line
medical staff have been disrupted in different ways. Exposure
has caused families to stay apart during quarantine leading to

4. psychological needs. Due to the requirements of separation and
disinfection, medical staff are forced to wear special clothing
that increases their safety, but consumes a lot of energy and
leads to severe oxygen deficiency, which leads to physical and
psychological symptoms, (Naeim et al., 2020). The pandemic is
causing mental distress in healthcare workers along with
patients. According to, (An et al., 2020) Depression was
common among ED nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The
article also considers the negative impact of depression on the
quality of patient care therefore a high sense of urgency and
awareness needs to be brought to this matter.
Potential innovation that I would consider as a solution to the
problem would be more counseling available to nurses. I would
like new tools to identify nurses that are exhibiting burnout
behaviors at work and integrate a system to intervene before
they give up without seeking help.
References
Naeim, M., Rezaeisharif, A., & Bagvand, S. G. (2020).
Strategies to reduce the anxiety and depression of nurses in the
special wards of COVID-19.
Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34
(6), 529–530. https://doi-
org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.028
An, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, A., Li, Y., Zhang, Q., Cheung, T.,
Ungvari, G. S., Qin, M.-Z., An, F.-R., & Xiang, Y.-T. (2020).
Prevalence of depression and its impact on quality of life among
frontline nurses in emergency departments during the COVID-
19 outbreak.
Journal of Affective Disorders, 276
, 312–315. https://doi-
org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.047