Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRNs) and State Regulations (Coursework Sample)

Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRNs) and State Regulations Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor's Name Due Date Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRNs) and State Regulations Family nurse practitioners (FNPs) are vital to the global healthcare landscape. They offer essential services in a wide range of settings, including hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms, veteran affairs facilities, nursing homes, public health departments, colleges, and private physician practices, among others. I acknowledge that FNP scope of practice varies from one state to the other. However, the main duties will include performing patient assessments, diagnosis, ordering, conducting, supervising, and interpreting laboratory and diagnostic tests, initiating pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, counselling, coordinating care, healthcare research, consultation, and patient advocacy and education (Balestra, 2019). FNPs may practice independently in collaboration with other practitioners depending on their licensing status. My education and training will allow me to offer services to a broad range of patients, including pediatrics, adults, geriatrics, family, neonatal, and mental health clients. Given these diverse roles, my personal philosophy for FNP is to prioritize disease prevention. I aim to create partnerships with patients to ensure holistic, compassionate, and evidence-based care that will optimize individual and community health and wellness. I intend to address every aspect of my patients’ health by educating and motivating them to take responsibility of their wellbeing. Nurses should aspire to go beyond alleviating presenting symptoms to remove any underlying causes of illness and address potential social, environmental, emotional, genetic, or spiritual barriers to the healing process (Nwozichi et al., 2019). My goal is to provide service beyond bedside care by taking on additional responsibilities and diagnosing and treating diseases, participating in research, and implementing evidence-based practices. I hope to realize these objectives by furthering my education and meeting the regulatory and licensing requirements of the various accrediting agencies. This philosophy is based on the humanistic nursing model developed by Loretta Zderad and Josephine Paterson. This approach considers patients as whole being rather than a set of symptoms or illnesses to promote physical, emotional, and mental health (Nwozichi et al., 2019). Accordingly, the nursing practice should be based on sound educational attainment and experience, as well as the impact of the nurse-patient relationship on the outcomes on interventions. Therefore, I will ensure that I address each patient on a case-by-case basis to prevent illness, promote health, and restore wellbeing. The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) is responsible for certifying and licensing advance practice and public health nurses, including nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. Individuals seeking APRN certification in California are required to complete an in-state master’s degree program accepted by BRN and earn a certification through a recognized organization. One can also complete a comparable program (BRN, 2020). Equivalency in this case requires nurses to prove clinical competency and experience in the provision of primary healthcare services, which needs to be verified by a licensed NP and a physician. Certification may be offered through various agencies, including the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), among others. APRN applicants must possess a valid registered nurse (RN) license issued in California. Prospective APRN certification applicants in California have to apply for a RN license first. Applications can be sent online or via mail, and should include the prescribed application form, verification of academic program, sealed educational transcripts, applicable fees. Those seeking certification through equivalency should include a signed verification of clinical competency from a physician and a NP, as well as other documents that the BRN may request (BRN, 2020). Nurses desiring prescriptive authority in California need to apply for a Furnishing Number for prescription drugs. Those willing to prescribe controlled substances should apply for a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Number. Applicants also need to complete a recognized continuing education (CE) prescribing course that is offered by the California Association for Nurse Practitioners (CANP) and meet the stated educational objectives (Germack, 2021). Generally, California is among the states with the most stringent certification process in the United States, especially regarding prescribing controlled substances. However, these measures are intended to ensure that only qualified candidates are licensed, promoting patient safety and satisfaction. Currently, APRNs in California are subject to a somewhat restrictive scope of practice. They are required to possess written collaborative practice agreements from physicians. The BRN also requires APRNs to be supervised and follow standardized procedures created through inter-professional consultations, allowing them to offer services that would normally be considered as the practice of medicine (Germack, 2021). However, under the newly signed AB-890 bill that is due to take effect in January 2023, APRNs in California will have authority to practice independently following a mandatory transitional oversight period. The new law identifies two categories of NPs depending on diverse educational, regulatory, training, and medical staff governance protocols. Those under section 2837.103 can practice autonomously without standardized procedures if they satisfy distinct requirements and work in environments with one or more physicians. NPs classified under section 2837.104 can meet additional criteria to be allowed to work in settings other than reserved for the latter category. Individuals under either class can conduct patient assessments, perform differential and primary diagnoses, perform, order, administer, and interpret diagnostic procedures and medications, and delegate tasks to assistants (Muench et al., 2021). This expanded scope of practice is based in reliable research that shows the capacity for NPs to provide equal or higher quality of care as compared to physicians even without supervision, primarily due to their education and experience. Patients managed by NPs have also been found to have lower rates of readmission, preventable hospitalization, and emergency room visits. These findings prove that expanding the scope of practice could be instrumental to improving patient safety and the quality of care. The terms prescriptive authority, clinical privileges, and credentialing have different meanings and pose distinct impacts on care quality and patient safety. Prescriptive authority refers to healthcare providers’ ability to order, prescribe, or administer particular pharmaceuticals, including controlled substances depending on their educational qualifications and state licensure (Germack, 2021). Credentialing, on the other hand, denotes the procedure an individual...