The Mandatory Regulation Of Nurse Practitioners

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

Since the inception of the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role in the 1960s, NPs have thrived in the delivery of primary healthcare and nurse case management. Despite patient satisfaction with NPs ' style of care, nurses have been critical of NPs, while physicians have been threatened by NP encroachment on MD practice. Balancing assessment, diagnosis, and treatment with caring defines NPs ' success as primary care providers. Understand the role and Scope of Practice of NPs is sometimes difficult for some to understand. The purpose of this paper is to define the role and history of NP, compare and contrast licensure versus certifications, understand NP Scope Of Practice and Standards of Care, discuss how the State Practice Acts regulate FNP practice, discuss credentialing and privileging, and differentiate between legislative and regulatory processes.

The Board of Nursing in California provides specific guidelines by which a registered nurse can become a nurse practitioner (NP) by means of acquiring advanced practice education. The additional preparation will help the NP in assessing and managing the healthcare needs of their patient population. In 2008 there were an estimated 145,000 NPs nationwide and 13,649 in California (Christian, S., & Dower, J.D., 2008). Although there are federal mandates for the NP role in primary care, the majority of the educational guidelines and scope of practice rules fall to individual states. This creates disparities between states that are evident by the differences in the outlined scope of practice for an NP.

For the year 2020 there is a projected shortage of physicians, a shortage of about 20,400 is estimated according to HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration). Along with the shortage of physicians, nurse practitioners offer lower the cost of health-care which helps many patients.

With the world of healthcare changing, no one really knows what is going to happen in the future. All we can do is predict, and wait for all of the bugs to be fixed as they arise. We do know that with everyone receiving healthcare, there will be a large increase of people who are now insured. What does this mean; more people will be trying to see the doctor, longer wait times and now a shortage of physicians. The time that it takes for a physician to receive all of their training just isn’t fast enough to keep up with the demand. We need people now and training takes at least 7 years. Then there is the issue: what if they want to specialize. If they specialize that leaves less physicians available to practice in primary care. Many of the physicians that are working today are close to retirement age, and they will be leaving soon. New policies need to be created and hospitals need to try to recruit physicians and need to get them to stay.

Nurse practitioners (NP’s) are registered nurses that have advanced education and training to provide services in academia and clinical services. Nurse practitioners have to follow state practice regulations. Now more than ever, NP’s can assert role significance by participating in health policy activities at the local, state, national, and international levels (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, n.d.). The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (n.d.) reports that NP’s offer high-quality care during a time that the U.S. faces a major population increase and primary care shortage. The increasing demand for primary care providers

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 with the goal of expanding healthcare coverage to all Americans by reforming insurance policies and practices (Tillett, 2011). The ACA upsurges the demand for an increase in primary care providers in order to supply quality care to the much larger population that will have coverage and therefore acquiring healthcare. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) through its report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health has generated a solution to the shortage of primary care providers by promoting a transformation of the nursing profession to fill the gap.

With the demand for primary care services already straining resources and capacity in most states, more than 16 million individuals are projected to gain health insurance coverage by 2016, and through advancements in medical science we have a rapidly aging population, many states are considering all options to increase the number and role of primary care providers. Despite a vigorous increase in the supply of physicians following unprecedented increases in medical school capacity in recent years, the “Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) still projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025, split almost equally between primary and specialty care.” (Association of American Medical Colleges. The Impact of Health Care Reform on

It would seem that even physician see the primary care provider role as one that is becoming undesirable according to a study by the University of Arizona. They asked both doctors and nurse practitioners if they would recommend student become nurse practitioners or primary care physicians and found,” both doctors and nurse practitioners are more likely to recommend students become nurse practitioners than primary care physicians. The need for primary care clinicians is increasing as the population in the U.S. grows older and health care becomes more extensive. These findings could be impactful as doctors and nurse practitioners offer similar services when acting as primary care clinicians (University of Arizona College of Nursing, 2015).”

The main purpose of undertaking this literature review is to provide a deeper understanding on the nature ARNPs’ working environment and their qualifications within the nursing field. Such a comprehensive outlook is expected to provide a clear roadmap of comprehending on their qualification for having the prescription authority over the controlled substance, which is a restriction in the state of Florida. In this study, the focus adopted by the researcher is to determine the appropriateness and feasibility of changing such restriction of prescription authority with reference to the Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners. This was found to be the most interesting approach to adopt as it offered an opportunity of analyzing

Primary care Nurse practitioners are significantly more likely than primary care physicians to practice in urban and rural areas. Studies show that nurse practitioners can manage 80-90% of care provided by primary care physicians. Evidence from research literature shows that primary care outcomes, including disease-specific physiologic measures, improvement in pathological condition, reduction of symptoms, mortality, hospitalization and other measures, and patient satisfaction, are comparable between patients served by Nurse practitioners and patients served by your everyday doctor. How does this connect to

The access to healthcare and managing the cost of this access is and will remain the number one challenge in this industry. This challenge has presented an opportunity for individuals in the nursing field to explore professional growth and increased earning potential. The utilization of nurse practitioners for primary care needs of patients is a cost saving approach as their ability to support physicians in the treatment of patients at a lower wage is proven. In addition, their abilities to care for patients’ primary health care needs is supported by the additional training and education required for their nurse practitioner credential. However, this situation leads to questions of how long will the wages of nurse practitioners remain noticeably lower than physicians as the demand for these professionals increases? Also, is there any significant differences in the diagnostic abilities of a nurse practitioner versus a primary care physician as their relationship is based upon the physician

From the above article reviews, it can be inferred that the shortage of primary care workforce is projected to be even more in the futures. There is a huge gap in the access to primary health care between rural and urban areas of the US and the projected shortage of primary care professionals will make the situation even worst. There are several ways to address these shortages and the articles have proposed a few of them. Use of nurse practitioners, access to electronic health records, increasing the wages of physicians willing to work in remote areas, and providing initiatives for working in the underserved areas are some of the ways of mitigating the primary care workforce. However, there is still a lot to research, owing to increasing shortage

Mid level providers such as a nurse practitioners are important primary health care providers for the US health care industry. With the shortage of physicians predicted by 2025 of a shortage of 90,000 (Lenny Bernstein, 2015), the need for mid level practitioners are essential. Nurse practitioners are capable of providing safe and effective patient care (Pauline, Chen., 2013). According to Pauline Chen, (2013), physicians believed they “ provided higher-quality care” (para 10) compared to nurse practitioners. To this, comparing the work of physicians and nurse practitioners became an interest of research.

There are a few factors that are causing these shortages, one factor is the decline of medical students choosing primary care versus a specialized field of medicine, they realize that they can make more money doing specialty care then their primary care counterparts. Another factor is that primary care providers are choosing to stay in urban areas. They choose to stay in these areas because they have more opportunity, have better technology and they fear that they will be isolated from learning new techniques then those practicing in rural areas. There is also the fact that they can earn more money and give their families more opportunity. Another factor is contributing to the primary care shortage in these underserved areas is the aging of those practicing providers are nearing retirement age. In an article published by California Family Rights Act (CFRA), written by Jon Bailey, Mr. Bailey states that “thirty percent of rural primary care practitioners are at or nearing retirement age, while younger practitioners (those under the age of 40) account for only twenty percent of the current workforce” (Bailey, 2009). This will cause a strain to an already undersupplied access to health care providers. There is also the challenge of increased demand of medical services due to the ageing population in these areas, since people tend to develop more healthcare needs when they age.