California's nurse practitioners: how scope of practice laws impact care

California's nurse practitioners: how scope of practice laws impact care

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Author(s):
Spetz, Joanne, author
Contributor(s):
California HealthCare Foundation, issuing body.
University of California, San Francisco. Healthforce Center, issuing body.
Publication:
[Oakland, Calif.] : California Health Care Foundation, September 2018
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Health Workforce -- statistics & numerical data
Nurse Practitioners -- statistics & numerical data
Nurse's Role
Quality of Health Care
California
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
California is 1 of 28 states that restricts nurse practitioners (NPs) by requiring that they practice and prescribe with physician oversight, and it is the only western state with this requirement. A large body of research has linked such restrictions to lower supply of NPs, poorer access to care for state residents, lower use of primary care services, and greater rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Although proponents of scope of practice restrictions argue that physician oversight is necessary to ensure quality of care, dozens of studies demonstrate both that the quality of NP care is comparable to that of physician care, and that there is no difference in the quality of care when there are no physician oversight requirements. Finally, several studies have found that full practice authority for NPs is associated with lower costs of care. This paper describes the regulations that govern the scope of practice for NPs in California and in other states, and summarizes recent research on how these laws impact care.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
101744549 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101744549