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This article describes past and current barriers to APRN prescribing abilities in the state of Georgia. While legislation has been passed in the state to allow APRN's to prescribe medications to their patients under a collaborating physician, Georgia remains one of the most restrictive states for APRN prescribing. A descriptive study was conducted to analyze the efficacy and safety of APRN prescribing and found that out of approximately 8000 prescriptions written by APRNs, only 0.003% of those were changed by the supervising physician. The study recommended that more data be collected to support the argument for full-prescriptive authority for APRNs in Georgia.

J Am Assoc Nurse Pract. 2015 Jun;27(6):300-7. doi: 10.1002/2327-6924.12203. Epub 2014 Dec 29. As of July 2006, APRNs are allowed to write prescriptions in Georgia. Even though it took a long time to achieve this, 40% of Georgia APRNs do not write prescriptions. Georgia is one of the most restrictive states for APRNs so policy changes are recommended to enhance to scope of APRNs.

Georgia is one of the most restrictive states in terms of APRN scope of practice. This article identifies barriers that are common to APRNs nationwide and specific barriers to Georgia APRNs.

Nice summaries with links to additional websites that may have the most current information.

Prescriptive authority. Gives a list of all states.

This gives a detailed outline of prescribing laws and restrictions in a state by state format.

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.

May be helpful for legislation information

This article looks at how legislative changes in prescriptive authority for APRNs in Georgia has actually panned out in practice and what barriers APRNs are facing in utilizing their prescriptive authority.

This article details the history of prescriptive authority for APRNs in Georgia and the current* state of affairs (*published in 2014) regarding how many APRNs utilize this within practice.

This article highlights the changes in policy that are needed to enable nurse practitioners their full scope of practice in a way that benefits patients and families at end-of-life. Nurse practitioners need the ability to practice to their full scope of practice, including providing autonomous care, receiving adequate and equal reimbursement for services, and having the authority to prescribe controlled substances II through V. Nurses also need to endorse policies that require specialized education so they receive the knowledge and skills necessary to be leaders in end-of-life care.