Nurse Practitioner Legal Practice Authority Essay

Nurse Practitioner Legal Practice Authority Essay

Nurse Practitioner Legal Practice Authority Essay

Nurse practitioners are key to patients care. Therefore, various strategies have been used to ensure that the NPs offer the best patient care. Among such strategies are prescriptive authority and full legal practice authority. A full legal practice authority and prescriptive authority refers to granting by law the nurse practitioners’ power to evaluate, diagnose and interpret diagnostic results (Smith, 2022). The authority also allows them to trigger treatments and management of the patients by prescribing medications to be used and given to the patients. Such authority is given exclusively by the state board of nursing.

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            Even though the affordable care act has been instrumental in improving patient care, there are various things related to patient care that it failed to recognize. For example, it failed to recognize NPs as potential primary care providers. I believe that such an action might have led to decreased opportunities for efficient use of the NP workforce in primary care. This is because there are areas where the doctors, due to their limited numbers, cannot reach to offer care (Park et al., 2020). The Nps, by their training, can offer most of the services offered by the physicians, such as diagnosis and prescription. Therefore, failure to recognize them as primary care providers has diminished the opportunities for efficient use of the workforce in primary care models.

            Over the years, various states have allowed full practice authority for Nurse practitioners. However, other states have reduced and restricted practice authorities. Under reduced, the nurse practitioners are allowed to diagnose and offer treatments to patients; however, physicians are needed to provide oversight during prescriptions. The following states allow for full practice authority for the NPs, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Vermont, Nebraska, Hawaii, South Dakota, Montana, District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Connecticut, Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado, North Dakota, Maryland, Arizona, New Mexico, Maine and Alaska (“AANP,” 2022).

References

Park, J., Han, X., & Pittman, P. (2020). Does expanded state scope of practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants increase primary care utilization in community health centers? Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 32(6), 447-458. Doi: 10.1097/JXX.0000000000000263

Smith, L. B. (2022). The effect of nurse practitioner scope of practice laws on primary care delivery. Health Economics, 31(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4438.

AANP (2022). State practice environment. https://www.aanp.org/advocacy/state/state-practice-environment.

 

Discussion on Nurse Practitioner (NP) legal practice authority:
1- What is full legal practice authority and prescriptive authority for Nurse practitioners?
2- Do you agree that failure of the ACA to recognize NPs as potential PCPs may lead to decreased opportunities for efficient use of the NP workforce in primary? Why or why not?
3- What states allow full practice authority for Nurse practitioners?