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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 2016 article provides a brief overview of progress made in expanding APRN scope of practice to utilize a practitioner's education to the fullest extent. Although the removal of barriers to scope of practice is progressing, there is still much work ahead. This article recommends that to meet our goals, we must encourage other HCPs, policy makers, etc. that investing in our profession, i.e. becoming stakeholders, is a necessity to optimize health care practice.

This article discusses the Pros and Cons of using APRNs in both outpatient and inpatient settings. One of the positives is that there are more jobs for the APRN and now APRN's can specialize much like physicians. The downside to that is that there are not as many NPs doing primary care, which is leaving a gap.

This article looked at the relationship between physician oversight and APRN autonomy and empowerment. It surveyed APRNs in Montana, to determine which factors most influence APRN empowerment and autonomy. Surprisingly, it found that high levels of physician oversight improve APRN empowerment, regardless of whether the oversight is regulatory or simply collaborative. A next step for this study would be to learn more about why physician empowerment increases APRN autonomy - are there certain qualities to the physician/APRN relationship that must be established?

An integrative review analyzed the perception of NPs and physicians working in primary care settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate these relationships in order to understand the success of collaboration and factors that strain these relationships. Multiple barriers were identified partly due to the autonomy of the NP. Furthermore, physicians who have never worked with NPs found more negative attitudes collaborating with NPs. Both NPs and physicians report concerns collaborating, but also value advantages.Unfortunately, a collaboration between NPs and physicians is a slow process, however, more exposure to this collaboration can help overcome these barriers.

This article describes the thought behind, process and goal of the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation, which aims to clarify and unify regulations for APRN licensure, accreditation, certification and education (LACE). This model was created in response to inconsistencies in APRN education and practice caused by a need for APRNs.

J Prof Nurs. 2011 May-Jun;27(3):161-7. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.02.004. This is the article on the importance of mentorship as a novice NP transitions from school into practice.

This article talks in depth about the position statement from NAPNAP on the scope of practice for Acute Care PNP.

This is an older but fascinating article about a midwife working in Gardener, Massachusetts in the 19th century. Hanna continued to attend births of mostly the immigrant population of the city despite being told by courts to cease. She was convicted of "practicing medicine without a license" and had to pay many fines and spend 3 months in a correctional facility. Note that the charges brought against her were never from clients, but from the physicians working in the area.

This resource goes into details on the role of the NNP and shows the progression of how the profession has come to be established and known as a provider.