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 Cost-Benefit Analysis Government Regulation Health Services Accessibility Nurse Practitioners -- education Primary Health Care State Government Humans 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