Week 6 Discussion QUESTIONS

Answer

Nursing Practitioner Practice in New Jersey

Prompt 1

In general, nurse practitioner scope of practice describes nurses in the healthcare environment who are prepared beyond initial nursing education to provide primary care directly to patients (Bryant-Lukosius et al., 2017). Np program developed in nursing to meet the increasing demand for quality and patient-centered. Nurse practitioner practice has an overall goal in enhancing nurses' contribution to the care environment. They can perform roles, including physical exams, order, and interpretation of diagnostics tests, provide counseling and education, and write prescriptions. NP is critical in care environments, but it is important to understand that the scope of practice varies depending on the state. This paper reviews scope of NP practice in the state of New Jersey.

Nurse practitioners in New Jersey are technically independent providers. The state`s statute refers to them as “licensed independent practitioners” and may diagnose and treatment patients with a physician`s supervision (Cadmus et al., 2020).  The state laws underlines that Nurse Practitioners must receive certification from the Board of Nursing to perform advanced-level nursing acts. The statutes` provision further outlines NP's key responsibilities, including nursing diagnostics, treatment, and alteration of health status. Considering the independence of practice of Nurse Practitioners in New Jersey, the provisions of the law give NPs independence of practice. Qualified nurse practitioners are allowed to independently operate primary care practices without an attending doctor (Cadmus et al., 2020).

New Jersey`s laws expands the prescription authorities of the NP nurses, recognizing that freeing them up allows working with the full extent of education and training, critical for improving quality of care. NPs training gives nurses prescriptive authority, the authorization to write prescriptions, and dispense medications (Brom et al., 2018).  However, limitations in the practice of advanced nursing in the state of New Jersey comes in the form of slow shift towards full extension of NPs roles in primary. The law requires NPs to collaborate with physicians to prescribe medication under a “joint protocol” (Cadmus et al., 2020). This sometimes cause delays medication prescriptions, contributing to the overall downturn of access to quality care. Although NPs are allowed to pronounce death, causes of death are determined by physicians.

The process for obtaining licensure for a Nurse practitioner in New Jersey follows a series of steps, but the bottom line entails possessing RN license. Active, licensed RN in NJ can become Nurse practitioner or Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) by obtaining a graduate degree in their areas of specialization. A candidate's major must in nursing or within the chosen general area of specialization (Nursing Licensure.org., 2020). The areas of specialization may include and not limited to women's health, adult health, acute care, and geriatrics. The second step in the process entails earning the national certification. The state requires nurses to apply to attain certification in programs including acute care nurse practitioner, family nurse practitioner, pediatrics, and gerontology. Application for licensing to the Board of Nursing is the last step, and licensure is renewable (Nursing Licensure.org., 2020).

Prompt 2

 Although “joint protocol” in medication prescription offers limitations in the scope of NPs practice in New Jersey, general independence of practice contributes to quality access to care.  The regulations in New Jersey that supports independence of NPs has contributed to improve roles of nurses in primary care. The prompt for the move that supported full practice emerged from the need to increase access to quality healthcare and optimize the utilization of advanced training and experience offered by Advanced Practice Registered. The law eliminates barriers of supervisory physician agreement and lack of recognition in the provision of primary care, especially in the emergency departments. It allows NPs to deliver care and reduce incidences of sending patients to the emergency room (Cadmus et al., 2020). The law allows NPs full extent of responsibility in primary care, controlled authority for prescription, diagnosis, and treatment to Nurse Practitioners. It contributes to growth in the overall quality of care and access (Cadmus et al., 2020). Recognition as primary care providers on Medicaid and Medicare has greatly improved access to healthcare in New Jersey.

Prompt 3

The fundamental aspects of healthcare systems focus on increasing the quality of care and accessibility. Development regarding expanding the roles of nurses in healthcare suggests that licensure and independence of practice is key to attaining parity in healthcare. Independence of NPs reduces the existing disparities in healthcare access associated with physician shortages. NPS supplement the roles played by physicians, thus are important in reducing healthcare access disparities.