Each Nurse Practice Act (NPA) presents the provision for the creation of a State Board of Nursing (BON). As was mentioned, this body is granted the right to produce regulatory rules that interpret the NPA requirements and provide more precise directions on nurse practitioners’ scope-of-practice (Salako, 2019). However, the regulations established by the BON must correlate with the NPA. Thus, they cannot transcend the terms provided by the law. Moreover, BON recommendations are reviewed by the public before implementation (Salako, 2019). Overall, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) scope-of-practice differs from state-to-state.
Thus, as was discussed, both Indiana and Ohio can have different types of regulations in place. The practice environment in various States includes full practice, reduced practice, and restricted one (Ortiz et al., 2018). The full practice grants ARNP with more freedom while diagnosing, prescribing medications, and treatments than the other two kinds of practicing regulations. The National Academy of Medicine also recommends full practice (Ortiz et al., 2018). Similarly to Indiana and Ohio, several other States follow requirements of reduced practice, which indicates that laws limit the capacity of ARNPs to participate in at least one element of practice fully (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2019).
I think that ARNPs have different influences on the decision-making process of practice regulations from state-to-state. Some nurses have their voices heard more than the others do because States such as Michigan, Missouri, Texas, and Georgia obligate nurses to follow the requirements of restricted practice (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2019). Studies suggest that additional supervision requirements for ARNPs have an adverse influence on patients’ access to appropriate care, especially in rural areas (Salako, 2019). Thus, I believe that ARNP operating in these areas can potentially have a more substantial influence on the practice regulations in all States over time.
References
American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2019). State practice environment. Web.
Ortiz, J., Hofler, R., Bushy, A., Lin, Y. L., Khanijahani, A., & Bitney, A. (2018). Impact of nurse practitioner practice regulations on rural population health outcomes. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 6(2), 65. Web.
Salako, A. (2019). The impact of state nurse practitioner scope-of-practice regulations on access to primary care in health professional shortage areas [Doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa]. The University of Iowa’s Institutional Repository.