Nurse practitioners' use of clinical preventive services

Purpose: To examine the use of clinical preventive services (CPSs) by nurse practitioners (NPs) in practice.
Data sources: A total of 53 transcribed NP–patient encounters and 28 NP surveys.
Conclusions: Based on content analysis of the transcribed interviews, only a small majority of NPs (60.4%) used at least one CPS per visit. From the post-survey results, it appears that what NPs think they do varies greatly from what they actually do in clinical practice.
Implications for practice: The knowledge gained about the use of recommended CPSs may help promote better clinical practice among NPs and foster improvement in graduate school preparation of NP students.