The Impact of Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practioners and Other Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in Ohio

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) make up the fastest-growing segment of the primary-care professional workforce in the United States. States are considering expanding scope-of-practice (SOP) laws for these APRNs as a potential approach to improve access to care, maintain or enhance care q...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2015
Main Authors: Martsolf, Grant R, Auerbach, David I, Arifkhanova, Aziza
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Health care policy
RAND Corporation
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) make up the fastest-growing segment of the primary-care professional workforce in the United States. States are considering expanding scope-of-practice (SOP) laws for these APRNs as a potential approach to improve access to care, maintain or enhance care quality, and decrease overall health-care costs. Previous studies have demonstrated that APRNs deliver care that is of equal quality to the care provided by their physician counterparts. As part of an extensive literature review, RAND Corporation researchers identified three high-quality studies addressing the impact that expanded SOP laws could have on health-care access, quality, and costs. Informed by this review of literature, the authors describe the potential effect of removing SOP restrictions for APRNs in the state of Ohio. Their review of the literature and effect estimates demonstrate that granting APRNs full practice authority would likely increase access to health-care services for Ohioans, with possible increases in quality and no clear increase in costs.