Nurse Practitioner Regulation Paper

Nurse practitioners play an important role in healthcare in every state. However, each state has specific regulations pertaining to state regulations that guide prescriptive practice related to educational requirements, advance practice licensure requirements, and prescriptive authority (specifically controlled substances) of nurse practitioners. This paper will analyze the governing regulations of nurse practitioners in three states with full practice authority, reduced practice authority, and restricted practice authority. It will compare and contrast Washington D.C., New York, and Georgia, which have similar educational and licensure requirements, but vastly different approaches to the scope of practice in their respective states.

National certification in the general practice specialty is required prior to becoming eligible for APRN authority and the District of Columbia Board of Nursing accepts certification for APRN’s offered from several national bodies including the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center) and AANP (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners). There is also a required preceptorship that is at least one year long along with coursework covering adult care, primary health care, pharmacology, physical assessment, diagnosis, family care, gerontological care, pediatric care, neonatal care, school nurse care, and psychiatric

Nurse practitioners may diagnose, treat, and prescribe for a patient’s condition that falls within their specialty area of practice. Nurse practitioner specialty areas include: Acute Care; Adult Health; College Health; Community Health; Family Health; Gerontology; Holistic Nursing; Neonatology; Obstetrics and Gynecology; Oncology; Palliative Care; Pediatrics; Perinatology; Psychiatry; School Health; and Women’s Health”("New York Nursing," 2014, p. 1). The applicant must be a certified and registered nurse by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) in order to practice as an NP in New York. The nurse must have “graduated from a nurse practitioner education program acceptable to NYSED or be certified as a nurse practitioner by a national certifying organization acceptable to NYSED and complete pharmacology coursework acceptable to NYSED and apply for nurse practitioner certification with NYSED”("New York Nursing," 2014, p. 1). New York provides an additional option for applicants that did not graduate from an education program registered by NYSED as qualifying for NP certification. The nurse must satisfy the pharmacology coursework requirement by demonstrating to NYSED that they