Regulation of APN and scope of practice. Health care practitioners are one of the most important professionals in the world. This is regardless of the states of the countries in which they practice. In the United States, healthcare practitioners are regarded as some of the most crucial professionals in the country.
However, Debra (2014) feels that the link between the higher level of nurse practitioners and the state laws seems to have parted ways a long time ago. As a result, many health care policy makers and lobbyists have been emphasizing on the need of having different aspects of the health care reforms addressed at the federal level. The state level has the mandate of addressing the continuing competence as well as the scope of the practitioner. Debra (2014) is of the perception that the scope of the practice law can either promote or limit that access. She feels that it all depends on the writing and the implementing of the state laws.
Rigolosi, & Salmond, (2017) are also of the perception that the outdated policies, as well as the laws, have the tendency of weighing the nurse practitioner down. They argue that these ancient laws fail to facilitate or offer opportunities in which the practitioners can practice to their fullest to the extent of their education and training. This is more so bearing in mind that different statutory and regulatory boards have different laws concerning the scope of practice in this country. These laws define totally different responsibility scope for advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). There are various types of regulations and rules that impact the way nurses and practitioners practice.
The only real way that can be employed in ensuring continuity between state regulatory boards is by adopting Consensus model applied for APRN regulation. This is according to the Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, (2017). The Consensus Model recommends having a single advanced practice for RN license. They argue that such licensure would facilitate APNs without various types of regulatory restrictions (Rigolosi, & Salmond, 2017). Standardization is important in ensuring national wide consistency as well as the consistency in addition to the quality of education programs aimed at providing the needed uniformity among the APNs. Accoring to Debra (2014), what makes the difference is the services provided by the nursing practitioner. Too much regulation interferes with effective and efficient provision of quality medical and healthcare services to the patients, by a nursing practitioner (Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, 2017). The uniformity of the license will, therefore, facilitate the effective and efficient provision of healthcare services to the patients.
Reference
Hain, D. (2014). Barriers to NP Practice That Impact Healthcare Redesign. Medscape. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/833516_2
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, a. (2017). Transforming Practice. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209871/
Rigolosi, R., & Salmond, S. (2017). The journey to independent nurse practitioner practice. Onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2327-6924.12130/abstract
