Group items tagged

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.

Nurse practice laws and regulations are specific to each state. Check out AANP's quick reference guide below for licensure and regulatory requirements, as well as practice environment details, for all 50 states and the U.S. Territories. Download State Regulatory Map Members get more! Log in for access to State Policy Fact Sheets.

In 2006, APRNS gained legal authority to write prescriptions in Georgia. It has been shown that nearly 40% of APRNS are still not writing prescriptions. Georgia is one of the most restrictive states in terms of APRN scope of practice. Policy changes are recommended to enhance the practice environment of APRNs to support the delivery of quality care

This article discusses APRN's in Georgia and their prescriptive authority. Georgia is one of the most restrictive states regarding APRN scope of practice. After a lengthy battle, APRN's were granted prescriptive rights in 2006; although, many are still not practicing to their full scope.

This article discusses the evolution of APRN practice in the state of Georgia, the barriers to practice, and the implications. As many of us know, the south, and Georgia specifically, is one of the most restrictive states in regards to practice.

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.

This is a toolkit from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners that APRNs can use to stay connected to legislative efforts that impact their profession. "Policy" can be a very overwhelming idea, particularly to someone who does not have experience with that realm of healthcare, so the AANP breaks it down for you. There are issue briefs on things like Full Practice Authority and Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. These briefs give you the bullet points on why the policy is good or bad for our patients and evidence supporting that position. There's other resources as well that can help you find your legislators, find out about federal and state legislation, and get connected to legislative advocacy initiatives in your state. Participating in the legislative process is a really important way that APRNs can advocate for our patients, and this resource will support you in engaging with it.

This is a link to a visualization of NP scope of practice in each state. Our skillset remains the same in each state, yet our autonomy is variable!

Nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners, also referred to as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), provide and coordinate patient care and they may provide primary and specialty health care. The scope of practice varies from state to state.

The researchers in this article focused on analyzing what kind of economic impact that giving APRNs full scope of practice in North Carolina would have. They calculated the impact by first projecting the increase in APRN graduates choosing to work in the state after full scope would be awarded. Projections of the increase in demand for providers due to both the ACA and an aging population were also taken into consideration. The findings in this analysis were that giving APRNs full scope of practice in the state would benefit the economy with increased output, employment, and tax revenue all while decreasing provider shortages. The state could save upwards of $495 million in gross product annually.

Hopefully, results such as these will give other states with more restrictive policies incentive to change their practice guidelines.

This article describes the Consensus Model developed in 2008 for the APRN role for licensure, accreditation and certification across the United States. Though the intended goal for adoption was in 2015 (still has not happened yet), there is still much work that needs to be done at the state and national level to get this to approved.

This is a great systematic review that delves into state by state regulations on scope of practice for APRNs and how restrictive practice ultimately reduces access to healthcare particularly in rural populations. The impact of the ACA and shortage of PCPs to meet this demand is also explored. Enjoy!

This 2015 article, written in the Journal of Pediatric Health Care, discusses the critical importance of intervening and advocating for APRNs to have full practice authority as opposed to the current varying state-by-state practice laws. The author explains the primary reasons for states retaining restrictions on APRN practice are outdated and include lack of awareness of the current scope of practice of APRNs and organized medicine's persistent opposition to expanding the authority of other providers to practice and receive the full amount for their rendered services. The author supports her argument by including the IOM Committee's view; removing APRN practice restrictions would assist in addressing health care access, high-quality care, and an overall healthier population.

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.

This article is about scope of practice and gives a state by state analysis of regulations and how the 2008 consensus applies.

This article addresses how Iowa APRNs in a state-sanctioned task force identified barriers for practicing at the top of their licensure in a full practice authority state including defending the right to control the scope of nursing practice in court.

This article explores how APRNs in the state of Iowa, as part of a state-sanctioned task force, identified barriers to practicing at the top of their licensure. Four goals to remove barriers to APRN full-scope practice were identified: 1) Create documents describing APRN roles to educate stakeholders, 2) Initiate discussion and presentations regarding APRN practice with stakeholders, 3) Form guidelines to create change in the existing institutional bylaws, and 4) Disseminate information using common language to the public using social media.