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In this article, author Lugo discusses the findings of her study relating limits on full practice authority for APRNs to issues of gender equality. She investigated the link between state support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and laws in these states allowing APRNs full scope of practice and prescribing rights. Her study showed that states that have historically and currently supported the ERA in fact allow greater APRN scope of practice, and thus she draws conclusions about attitudes towards women's equality and the regulation of advanced practice nursing, which remains to be a woman-dominated profession.

In this May 2016 article published in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Dr. Nancy Rudner Lugo argues that advanced practicing nursing viewed through a gendered perspective due to nursing's history as a predominantly female profession; because of this, APRNS in states that are less accepting of women's equality have a more narrow scope of practice. There is not currently a national-level evidence based method used to determine APRN scope, and is instead decided at the state level. The author seeks to explain the cause of the discrepancy between differing APRN scopes of practice in different states by comparing the APRN scope of practice between states that did and did not vote to pass the Equal Right Amendment, positing that states with cultural attitudes that are more equitable between genders reflect this at the legislative level, thus explaining the wider or full practice authority given to APRNs in these states. In conclusion, Lugo advocates for increasing the number of women in legislative positions, forming relationships between women's equality organizations and groups working towards expanded health care access, and emphasizing the skills and competency of APRNs in achieving positive patient health outcomes.

This article discusses the evolution of the WHNP. While I am in the FNP program, I plan to specialize in women's health which is why I picked this article. The conclusion of this article notes that the WHNP is moving to becoming a focus area in a FNP or ANP curriculum (or at least that was the author's opinion in 2009). I have found programs which allow for a specialty in women's and gender-related health care such as the following at Columbia and University of Pennsylvania. (Columbia: http://nursing.columbia.edu/course-list/Womens-Health ; U Penn: http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/whcs/Pages/WHCNPProgram.aspx)

Connects efforts for full practice authority for NPs to the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by various states. States that ratified the ERA and therefore have a more egalitarian view of women are more likely to have full scope of practice laws for NPs, CNMs, and CRNAs