Scope Of Practice Essay

When considering competencies and practices standards as an advanced provider we must consider benchmarks of excellence for healthcare in our area of practice. According to evidence-based research when care is given by a nurse practitioner a patient outcome improves significantly. The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties has outlined guidelines of competencies for the NP to facilitate from the role of RN to NP. Two governing boards that administer tests for the advanced nurse to become certified is the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) (BV, 2016). The ANNC uses the consensus Model for APRN regulation to include Licensure, Accreditation, Education, and

Among the six states of wide-range of scope-of-practice is the state I reside in, Maryland along with Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Michigan. According to a qualitative study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), the scope-of-practice laws can have indirect impact on practice opportunities and may influence payer policies for the nurse practitioner. Additionally, these policies incorporate whether the advanced provider is recognized as primary care provider and if they are included in provider networks health plans or allow the NP to bill and be paid directly. Furthermore, states with more restrictive scope-of-practice laws can be more challenging for NPs to bill public or private payers, order certain testing, and establish independent primary care practices. One way to ensure the NPs are effective in the primary care setting is for policy makers to consider regulatory changes such as explicitly granting NPs authority under Medicaid or encouraging health plans to pay nurse practitioners directly (Yee, Boukus, Cross,... & Samuel,