Report from the National Governors Association:
With the demand for primary care services already straining capacity in most states, more than 16 million individuals projected to gain health insurance coverage by 2016, and a rapidly aging population, many states are considering options to increase the number and role of primary care providers. One option for states is to reexamine their scope of practice laws governing nurse practitioners (NPs). NPs, the largest group of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), currently serve patients in a wide variety of settings under varying degrees of physician supervision. The National Governors Association (NGA) undertook a review of the literature and state rules governing NPs’ scope of practice to answer three questions pertaining to their potential role in meeting the increasing demand for primary care: (1) to what extent do scope of practice rules for NPs, as well as licensure and other conditional requirements, vary across states?; (2) to what extent do states’ rules and requirements for NPs deviate from evidence-based research of appropriate activities for NPs?; and (3) given current evidence, what would be the effect of changes to state scope of practice laws and regulations on health care access and quality?
