Scope of Practice for Nurse Practitioners

Scope of Practice for Nurse Practitioners

Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) is an individual who is approved by the Board of Nursing to practice as a nurse practitioner (NP), nurse psychotherapist, as a clinical specialist, or as a nurse-midwife (Ortiz et al., 2018).  Therefore, a licensed nurse practitioner is an advanced practice nurse with extra responsibilities for administering care to patients than registered nurses. They are prepared through training both in education and in the clinical settings to provide health services such as diagnosis and managing complex and common health conditions to patients of varying ages (Blackwell, 2015). The American Association of Nurse Practitioners stated that nurse practitioners offer primary, high-quality, cost-effective, and special health care to all people as it has been in the past three decades.

It should be noted that the scope of practice for nurse practitioners differ from one state to another in the U.S (Yee et al., 2013). Their work is assessing patients, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, managing and initiating treatment methods as well as prescribing medications. In the United States of America, there is a significant distinction in the different areas of scope of practice in Maryland and Florida.

Practice authority, as one among the three areas of scope of practice for nurses, is defined as the capability of a nurse practitioner (NP) to independently practice in his or her line of duty without supervision from a physician. A relationship with a physician is required to outline the methods that the nurse practitioner would perform and methods in which to make consultations from the physician (Yee et al., 2013). In some of the states in the U.S, policies specify whether a nurse practitioner must finish a transition to practice period prior to practising independently (Blackwell, 2015). A good example is the strict Florida law that stipulates that physicians should supervise nurse practitioners. In this case, the physician does not need to be physically available but must be accessible by phone for consultations. Also, the law requires that the patients to be informed when the supervising physician is or is not on site. In Florida, the requirements for specialty clinics are stricter as doctors in the specialty practice may have oversight to nursing practitioners at a single location in addition to their primary practice.

In other states, nurse practitioners have full independent practice authority. It means that they practice independently without oversight from a physician. For instance, in Maryland, nurse practitioners are not allowed to have any joint agreement with a physician. They are expected to independently perform the functions permitted by the law, including assessing patients and diagnosing and ordering of tests (Yee et al., 2013). However, before they are granted the full practice authority, they are expected to have a regulated joint relationship for one and half a year with a physician.

Nurse practitioners are specialists in health promotion and disease control. In the prescriptive authority, NPs are allowed to prescribe medications. In some states, a relationship with a physician is required outlining the prescribing knowledge of the practitioner. From other states, nurse practitioners are expected to complete a transition to practice time before being competent to prescribe alone (Ortiz et al., 2018). In other states, physician supervision to nursing practitioners is not required as they can prescribe medications without supervision (Blackwell, 2015). In Maryland, nurse practitioners are authorized to prescribe and dispense drugs, equipment, and other substances independently.  They can have a mutual relationship with a doctor for one and a half a year, after which they can practice freely. Things are quite much different in Florida (Yee et al., 2013). The state is recognized with its strict laws, and it is identified as a state that does not authorize the prescription of controlled substances by nurse practitioners even if there is the supervision of physicians.

The lawmakers recognize that other practices attempt to evade the law. Therefore, they created laws preventing nurse practitioners from using prescription forms that are approved by doctors (Ortiz et al., 2018). In some of the states, NPs are identified as primary caregivers, while other states to don’t explicitly recognize them as primary caregivers (Yee et al., 2013). Maryland is one of the states that recognize nurse practitioners as primary caregivers, unlike Florida. Generally, as licensed and independent clinicians, nurse practitioners practice separately and in collaboration with health care specialists. They can be researchers in healthcare, consultants as well as patient advocates.

In conclusion, the scope of practice should be understood as the methods, activities, and processes that health caregivers are legally authorized to perform and adhere to within the terms and conditions of their professional license. The scope of practice differs from state to state, and some of the states allow a liberal range of practice for NPs, while in other states, nurse practitioners are restricted when physicians supervise them. It is crucial noting that every nurse practitioner is educated so that he or she can practice independently. Irrespective of the state in which the nurse practitioner’s school is situated, the nurse practitioner students are trained to offer health care without oversight from physicians.