Nurse Practitioners (NP)

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Nurse Practitioners (NP)

DISCUSSION POST #1 Please reply to Moruph
Massachusetts is a full practice authority state for Nurse Practitioners (NP). In the state of Massachusetts, to practice as a nurse practitioner, the nurse must have a postgraduate nursing certification, have a good moral character, and pay applicable fees for licensure through examination (Massachusetts Board of Nursing, 2023).
In addition, the current climate of NP practice in Massachusetts is encouraging because NPs have been granted full practice authority. Also, the state of Massachusetts provides several resources to help NPs in their practice.
NPs are allowed to independently perform advanced assessment, diagnose, treat, make referrals and consultations in the state of Massachusetts (Massachusetts Board of Nursing, 2023). In addition, APRNs may certify Medicare patient home health benefit eligibility and manage the patient care plans. (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2023).
On January 1st, 2021, Massachusetts joined several other states that allowed Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) to practice independently. Massachusetts has adopted full practice authority. Among other things, the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the events that sped up the legislation that approved full practice authority of NPs in the state of Massachusetts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a delay in access to healthcare due to shortages of primary care healthcare providers, and this paved the way for the state government to grant full practice authority to nurse practitioners.
Barriers to full practice authority.
Currently, APRNs’ practice authority is limited to the state of Massachusetts, and this is a barrier as NPs should be allowed to practice on a national level (Hopla et al., 2023). Besides, the state of Massachusetts requires NPs to have a minimum of two years of supervised practice to be able to prescribe.(Massachusetts Board of Nursing, 2023)
I will get involved in APRN advocacy by joining the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In addition, I will write a letter to the Massachusetts senator advocating that NPs should be granted prescriptive authority immediately after obtaining their license because they have been adequately trained to perform this function. Several states still put a restriction on APRNs’ practice (Obrien, 2023). I will write the senators of these states advocating for the removal of the practice restrictions.

DISCUSSION POST #2 Reply to Angelo

In New Mexico, Nurse Practitioners are able to work independently (New Mexico Board of Nursing: Official Website, 2023). They are not required to have an MD or DO to sign off on anything. From my readings of the textbook, I have learned that the first nurse practitioner to practice was in 1060. This began when there was a shortage of medical doctors and the “nurse practitioner” was created. I was unaware that some facilities or states require for NPs to utilize protocols in their decision-making. An example for the text uses an Urinary Tract Infection scenario, including topics to hit when addressing the HPI, ROS, PE, and potential labs. It also includes medications to prescribe if certain labs are positive. This page in the text reminds me of the Family Practice Guidelines textbook that we have. It is very useful when thinking of what to do for a patient.
New Mexico became a full-practice state in 1993. Prior to this year, nurse practitioners collaborated with physicians and were only allowed to prescribe non-controlled substances. A group of Nurse Practitioners had a desire, and that was to ensure patients had access to healthcare services. In 1993, nurse practitioners were given the right to prescribe controlled substances, schedule II-V, and practice independently (New Mexico Board of Nursing: Official Website, 2023).
I would like to be involved with my state’s progress in Nurse Practitioner Practice by joining the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council and attending their meetings. This will help give me an insight into what changes are planned or needed for the state (New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council, n.d.).