Restrictions Of Roles Of Nurse Practitioners And Advanced Practice Nurses In Certain States

Restrictions of roles of nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses in certain states
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Restrictions of roles of nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses in certain states
Dear legislator,
The health sector is one of the fastest growing sectors with several innovative programs being initiated to improve access to health care services. The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act of 2010 has further altered the roles of health care providers (Moore, 2017). However, the health care reforms have failed to consider the need to increase health care personnel; this situation has negatively impacted on primary care in Massachusetts.
The current number of physicians cannot cater for the primary care needs of the newly insured (Poghosyan, Boyd & Clarke, 2016). Nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses care for thousands of patients, including newborns, nursing homes in hospitals and at home. APRNs are competent professionals capable of delivering high-quality care, several states has acknowledged their role in promoting access to health care services within the primary care setting, but their scope of practice is still limited more so in Massachusetts(Poghosyan, Boyd & Clarke, 2016).
Nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses practice based on their levels of education and training in many states, Massachusetts is among the few states limiting the scope of practice for ARPN. According to the Massachusetts regulations, the scope of practice laws determines what care advanced practice nurses can deliver (Poghosyan, Boyd & Clarke, 2016).
Even though the healthcare reforms have remarkably increased the number of people seeking care, Massachusetts nurse practice Act is among the major barriers that limit the utilization of APRN to increase access to care (Poghosyan et al., 2015). For many years, Massachusetts has been in the front line in promoting health care reform, ironically, the laws and regulations guiding the APRN practice are outdated and are not appropriate in the modern day health care environment (Poghosyan et al., 2015).
Nurse practitioners are not permitted to prescribe certain drugs for personal use or to family members except for emergency situations (Hooker & Muchow, 2015). Besides, NP is required to sign a collaborative agreement with physicians, and their charts are reviewed physicians after three months to ensure they meet the required standards of practice (Hooker & Muchow, 2015). The ARPN scope of practice is not extensive like other states.
If Massachusetts is to achieve the intended reforms needed within the healthcare sector which includes an increased access to quality healthcare and cost containment, the scope of practice needs to be expanded to permit APRN bridge the gaps existing within the health care wo...