Barriers to Advanced Nursing Practice
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Nurse practitioners are trained professionals who assist in improving the health outcomes of patients. The Healthcare system is advancing globally; similarly, populations’ health needs are becoming complex. Nurse practitioners advancing in their training are given a platform instituted by IOM to exercise the skills gained from training completely. However, there are barriers that are limiting nurse practitioners from fully exercising their skills (Peterson, 2017). This paper will discuss some of these barriers and the strategies employed to eliminate those barriers.
Barriers
One of the barriers faced by nurse practitioners is state practice and licensing. Nurse practitioners are highly limited to exploiting their nursing skills fully by state practice and licensure. To fully practice their skills, nurse practitioners are required to collect licensure laws and state practices that allows a nurse to diagnose, evaluate, administer care, and interpret the diagnosed test under the state board of the nursing authority. Failure to have the licensure, a nurse practitioner, cannot fully practice these elements in about three-quarter of the US states.
The other barrier involves physician issues. Several health institutions, such as the American Medical Association, believe that nurse practitioners cannot provide appropriate high-quality care than physicians. This is grounded on the fact that physicians undertake rigorous training compared to nurses. Some organizations, such as the American College of Physicians, still value nurse practitioners even though having lesser skills than physicians.
The third barrier to the full practice of nurse practitioners is the payer policies. Payer policies are associated with state practice rules and licensure. There is a scope of practice that tends to be more restrictive, resulting in strict payer policies. In turn, these payer policies limit nurse practitioners’ operations and, most importantly, the denial of practicing independently. The payer policies force nurse practitioners to work as assistants of physicians, health care institutions and other health entities.
Addressing Barriers
One of the ways to address the barriers faced by advanced nurse practitioners is through policy initiatives. Nursing organizations such as American Nurses Association are taking the leading role in advocating for nurse practitioners to exercise their training skills to the full extent. Also, various state and local nurse practitioner organizations are trying to move legislative initiatives ahead (Dillon & Gary, 2017). To promote superior primary care, states should eliminate variances in state licensure, the scope of practice, and any hindrances to practice independently by nurse practitioners.
The other way to address the barriers is through transforming healthcare. Transforming health care is a vital step to advance the role of nurse practitioners to facilitate quality and efficient primary care delivery. More attention should be paid to the gaps in quality care delivery to discover a focused direction of areas that require improvement. Further, nurse practitioners should develop a relationship with primary care and physicians to develop an integrated workforce. According to the IOM report, nurse practitioners should be part and leaders of inter-professional teams. NPs collaboration with physicians as members of inter-professional teams will aid in attaining the Triple Aim of healthcare.
Lastly, advanced practice education is another way to address nursing practice barriers. In order to meet the changing healthcare needs of populations, it is essential to advance practice nursing education. According to the American Association of Colleges of nursing, nurse practitioners require nurse practitioner educational programs to attain needed knowledge and skills to manage the healthcare needs of different populations in future (Dillon & Gary, 2017). Inter-professional education is another requirement for nurse practitioners to improve patient care and patient satisfaction, reduce medical errors, and increase health outcomes.
References
Dillon, D., & Gary, F. (2017). Full practice authority for nurse practitioners. Nursing administration quarterly, 41(1), 86-93.
Peterson, M. E. (2017). Barriers to practice and the impact on health care: A nurse practitioner focus. Journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology, 8(1), 74.