FAQ: Advance Practice Nurse Role for Legislators/Government Officials

What is a Nurse Practitioner?
According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP 2016), nurse practitioners (NPs) are licensed, autonomous clinicians focused on managing people’s health conditions and preventing disease. As advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), NPs often specialize by patient population, including pediatric, adult-gerontological, and women’s health. NPs may also subspecialize in areas such as dermatology, cardiovascular health, and oncology. NPs take health histories and provide complete physical examinations; diagnose and treat many common acute and chronic problems; interpret laboratory results and X-rays; prescribe and manage medications …show more content…
Nurse practitioners can prescribe medication, including controlled substances, in all 50 states and Washington DC. That said, the degree of independence with which they can prescribe drugs, medical devices (e.g., crutches) or medical services varies by state NP practice authority. Practice authority is the ability of an NP to work to the extent of his or her training, education, and certification. A large component of this authority is the power to prescribe medications, often with differing levels of physician oversight. States fall into three broad categories: restricted, reduced, and full practice authority. For example, NPs in many of the largest US states (e.g., California, Texas, Florida) operate under restricted practice conditions and must have an agreement with a collaborating physician in order to prescribe medications; other states (e.g., Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon) have granted NPs full practice authority. In these areas, NPs can autonomously prescribe medications, including highly regulated Schedule II-V substances, without physician supervision. Still other states such as Vermont and New York have a supervised probationary period and newly licensed NPs must have a collaborating agreement with a doctor. After typically one to three years of experience, NPs gradually become more autonomous in their ability to prescribe …show more content…
Furthermore, individuals should have the right to access the health care provider of their choice. Legislatures at the national and state levels should advocate for individuals to have reasonable access to health care services. Nurse Practitioners as direct care providers of medical care implements simple, practical and inexpensive methods in utilizing NP’s in private practice. NPs provide services for the diagnosis, treatment and management of disease as well as illness prevention and health maintenance. Numerous studies conclude that nurse practitioners perform as well as physicians in their specialty area of practice, in patient diagnosis, management of specific diseases and patient outcomes. NPs have improved access to and affordability of health care by consistently offering high quality and cost-effective services. Nurse practitioners should be active partners and providers of health care as they insure delivery of quality health care in a cost-effective