Different states tend to have unique regulations for the Advance Practice Registered Nurse but all aims at securing the interest of the public health safety by regulating the activities of the health care professionals (Milstead, 2019). The board of nursing of a state acts on the power derived from the Nurse Practice Act passage that allows them to set and regulate standard for safe nursing practice within its jurisdiction for nurses that have the qualification and for advanced practice including licensure requirements and license renewal as well as any necessary disciplinary actions (Milstead, 2019).Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations.
Comparing the State of Georgia, my home state APRN board of nursing regulation to that of the State of Nebraska; the first thing I noticed is that Georgia state regulatory body is the board of nursing while that of Nebraska is the Department of Health and Human Services. The credentialing criteria are similar, but there are some differences in the scope of practice. Georgia state practice regulation has a restrictive tendency; the practice authority allows limited actions for APRN practice requiring supervision by health care provider throughout the APRN’s practice or team management before an APRN such as an NP can provide care to patients (American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), 2018).Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations. In the state of Georgia, the practice authority requires a written protocol between the NP and the overseeing physician which specifies medical acts delegated by the physician and demands an instant session with the physician (Scope of Practice Policy, 2019). No wonder at my practice setting an NP is not allowed to initiate care nor partake in a patient discharge process.Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations.
On the other hand, Nebraska state and licensure law permit all NPs to exercise autonomy in practice such that they can assess patients, diagnose, order diagnostic tests, initiate and manage treatments, prescribe all medications including control substances without a provider’s supervision after fulfilling the criteria for doing so (Nebraska legislature, n.d). Allowing APRNs to have full practice access will enable an increase in experience and expand the talents inherent in the nurse practitioners and encourage significant innovations in the nursing profession; also motivates other NPs to spring up in filling the gap created by the shortage of providers in America.Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations.
In Georgia, an NP can only prescribe a schedule III to V control substance if operating under the prescriptive authority of a supervising physician by submitting a written protocol to the supervising physician and permission is granted (American Medical Association (AMA), 2017). While in Nebraska, an NP may prescribe both legend drug and Schedules II-V controlled substances after the NP has put in first 2000 hours of practice under the supervision of a physician as well as completing 30 hours of education in pharmacotherapeutics and the board does not track the number of the NPs with DEA numbers (AMA, 2017). Both states require that providers should register in the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) for Benzodiazepines and opiates but the difference is that APRN in Georgia is practicing under the prescriptive authority of a physician and are not able to delegate access to PDMP unless a nurse who has prescriptive authority (Georgia Department of Public Health, 2018). While in Nebraska, APRN has prescriptive authority; thus, can delegate access to PDMP (Borcher, 2016).Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations.
It would be to the perfect interest of patients and the society as a whole for all the APRN in America to have equal full legal authority in all the states as in Nebraska to enable them to practice within the full scope of the education and experience they have earned through rigorous academic and clinical training. According to Doyle et al., (2017), NPs have all it takes to practice to the full scope of education gained; this prompted the IOM to call on states with unjustifiably restrictive regulations on the NPs like Georgia state to amend the law that will authorize NPs to practice to the full scope of their ability across the countries. Also as mentioned earlier, allowing NPs to have full practice authority that would enable them to practice and prescribe independently would assist in addressing the workforce shortage allowing underserved areas to have access to health care as well as all Americans in general (Doyle et al., 2017)Professional Nursing and State-Level Regulations.
Order this paper