Practicum Journal Entry: Certification Plan

Practicum Journal Entry: Certification Plan

Introduction

The healthcare system aims to empower and protect its consumers on matters that affect their quality of life through advocacy and policy development. This, in part, involves ensuring access to safe and affordable healthcare services for all residents. It can be achieved by improving healthcare workforce capacity through measures such as adopting the full scope of practice for healthcare practitioners. The need for psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPS) has been on the rise in the recent past owing to the increased life expectancy which translates to having more older people than there have been in the past. The elderly population is more susceptible to mental health disorders than any other population group. Some states allow PMHNPs to have full practice while others have reduced or restricted practice. This paper explores the practice environment for PMHNPs for Georgia and Maryland states.

Practice Environment for Georgia State

In Georgia, PMHNPs fall under the category for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). APRNs are registered nurses with additional education, training, and certification in a given area of practice. PMHNPs assist patients with mental health issues by offering specialized services. Georgia has been listed by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) among the top 12 states that have the most restrictive practice environments for nurse practitioners. The state regulations do not allow PMHNPs to exercise full practice and therefore, cannot apply their entire training in practice.

There are legal constraints for PMHNPs to provide medical care to patients. Licensed physicians are required to supervise the process of providing healthcare services to patients. Certain medical practices such as patient diagnosis, placing test requests, and writing prescriptions can only be performed by PMHNPs under the authority of the supervising physician. Physicians who delegate prescriptive authority to PMHNPs cannot have a protocol agreement with more than 4 PMHNPs. As a result, very few PMHNPs can write prescriptions in the state. In some of the practices, physicians review all the PMHNP charts even when they do not prescribe medications, although it is not part of the Georgia Law.

Comparison between Practice Environments for Georgia and Maryland States

The full scope of practice for healthcare practitioners increases access to healthcare services and prevents unnecessary delays. PMHNPs in Maryland are fully authorized by the state law to attend to patients, provide diagnoses and give prescriptions without involving the physician. The Maryland statute also recognizes all nurse practitioners as primary care providers. However, this is not the case in Georgia. The nursing practice is restricted by the state law, and PMHNPs must enter a collaborative agreement with physicians for one or more elements of the nursing practice. The Georgia statute does not define whether PMHNPs can be primary care providers or not.

Professional and/or Clinical Practice issue to Consider

A new PMHNP will need to consider the laws governing the clinical practice in the state they wish to practice during the licensure process. They need to explore the roles that a PMHNP can perform and the extent to which they can apply their training knowledge skills in the patient care process. They should identify a state whose requirements match their intended scope of practice. This is because the nature of the work environment largely determines the output by a professional.

Checklist for Passing the National Certification Exam

To pass the national certification exam, one needs to hold a valid registered nurse license. They should also have completed a master’s, a postgraduate, or doctoral degree program in psychiatric mental health. For the initial certification, non-members pay $395 while the prices for members registered with various nursing bodies are slightly below that of the non-members.

Conclusion

Adopting the full scope of practice for nurse practitioners is linked to improved access to care. It also allows PMHNPs to serve patients better and has the potential to lower healthcare costs for patients. In Georgia, for instance, physician supervision requirements have cost and time implications without any significant benefits for the consumer. It is also evident that PMHNPs are making treatment decisions, but the name of the physicians is the one that appears on the prescriptions. This makes it difficult to trace back to the origin of the treatment decision. The review of PMHNP decision is not usually done in real-time, thus indicating that PMHNPs have sufficient ability and knowledge to diagnose patients and give appropriate treatment.