Nurse Practioner Practice Agreements Research Assignment

Nurse Practitioner Practice Agreements
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Nurse Practitioner Practice Agreements
The Texas Nursing Practice Act states that it is a requirement that nursing practitioners have a collaboration agreement with a supervising physician, indicating consent by the physician to allow the nurse to practice under his or her supervision (Texas Board of Nursing, 2013). In addition, it was a requirement that a doctor is available on site at all times to supervise the activities of the nursing practitioners, although the requirement was eliminated recently. In Texas, the NP is required to practice within a region of 75 miles, designated for a supervising physician who can supervise up to a maximum of four nursing practitioners at a time (Tracy, 2015). Under the agreements, a nurse can only make prescriptions under the supervision of the physician, with all the orders bearing the name, address, DEA number and contacts of the medical doctor. During this engagement, the supervising physicians are paid agreed commissions by the NPS to allow them to practice.
A standard physician collaboration issue in Texas is the fact that most supervising physicians demand higher fees before signing collaboration agreements, a factor that most NP believe is unfair to them, considering that despite the engagement being a part-time role for the physicians, they end up earning more than the nurses who do the better part of the job (Tracy, 2015). Since doctors receive huge incomes from collaborative agreements, they have been on the forefront to oppose the urge to provide legal independence to the nurses’ practice. Lastly, the need for collaboration agreements in the state has driven away most nursing practitioners to practice in other states, resulting in a shortage of nurses in Texas, a negative implication on the provision of better health care. Texas has thereby suffered a competitive disadvantage due to the requirements, leading to the scarcity of nursing personnel in the state, which undermines the quality of health care (Alfaro, 2017).
State regulations are the core barriers that prevent NP from practicing independently. The laws are based on the assumption that ...