The Global Emergence of Advanced Practice Nurses in Providing Home and Community Health Care Services

Organizations, health systems, and interested individuals globally are assessing and investigating issues related to community health care services, home health management, and advanced nursing practice. Scarcity of financial and human resources has motivated health care policy makers to rise to the challenge to explore skill mix in the health care workforce in the hope of improving multidisciplinary collaboration in the provision of care for the world's populations. Nurses with advanced knowledge and skills are at the forefront of providing health care in home-based and community settings. This article describes the extent of this global phenomenon as it relates to advanced nursing practice and identifies a variety of international strategies utilized to introduce advanced practice nurses into health care systems.