Maryland State Practice Laws

Maryland State Practice Laws Case Study
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State practice act significantly contributes to formulating the Nurse Practitioners (NP) scope of practice and directly affect patient care's effectiveness and quality. This paper examines nurse practice laws in Maryland and their implications on patient care for patients suffering from co-morbid conditions. The report mainly focuses on how Maryland's nurse practice act impacts the management of a 35-year-old African American male with increased drinking, sleep disturbances, anxiety symptoms, and depression history.
Introduction to Maryland NP Practice
Maryland has incorporated an inclusive and progressing approach to NPs' practice with the state's healthcare system. The state acknowledges the fundamental role played by NPs in delivering optimal patient-centered care and enhancing healthcare service accessibility. However, the NP practice in Maryland is guided by well-structured frameworks and laws that enable NPs to practice independently in their specialization areas while coordinating and collaborating with other healthcare stakeholders. NPs in Maryland can examine, diagnose, offer treatment, and manage patients. Moreover, they can conduct physical examinations, perform and interpret tests, decide on management plans, and prescribe medications. Such autonomy enables NPs to contribute as Primary Care Providers (PCPs), addressing diverse healthcare needs at personal and family levels (Buppert, 2020).
However, NP practice in Maryland involves coordination and collaboration among healthcare stakeholders. NPs have collaborative agreements with physicians in efforts to sustain their prescriptive prerogative. Such a collaborative model ensures NPs can access physician referrals, expertise, and consultation, thus ensuring patient care safety and quality. Moreover, it is a requirement for NPs to attain an accredited graduate-level nursing course before practice and get a national certification concerning their area of specialization. Also, Maryland allows NPs to work in different settings like hospitals, community healthcare centers, primary care clinics, and long-term patient care centers. Such flexibility in NP practice settings enables NPs to attend to underserved communities or populations with challenges accessing care services. To address this need, Maryland has achieved a significant milestone of having more NPs practicing listening to patients (Bae et al., 2022).
Maryland NP Practice Laws Impact on Patient Care
The nurse practice act guides the activities of NPs in Maryland by laying the basis via which they can practice, including illustrating their licensure requirements, roles, and responsibilities. NPs should extensively comprehend the provisions and implications of the nurse practice act to ensure secure, comprehensive, and patient-oriented care. Maryland recognizes NPs as independent and competent healthcare providers with the mandate of examining, diagnosing, treating, and managing patients in their specialty areas (Maryland.gov, 2018). Such recognition enhances NPs to offer diverse healthcare services such as physical examinations, medication prescription, order and interpretation of diagnosti...