Discussion 14.1: Contemporary Health Policy Project: Peer Review

Hi Michelle Barry

In the current role play case, I assume the position of a local or a member of the professional nursing society/group or action coalition. As a member of the respective society, my fundamental role entails advocating for policy reform to enhance the overall practice of advanced practice nursing (APRN) as a framework for fostering the health and well-being of the public. The rationale for choosing this role as an APRN member of the professional coalition is prompted by my intrinsic aspiration to champion improved and optimal APRNs practices across the country. Correspondingly, this is an impactful strategy towards guaranteeing equitable healthcare access among the members of the public, not only in my state but also nationwide. I perceive quality health care as a basic privilege and right that should be granted to citizens regardless of their social or economic status. Thus, a viable and conducive healthcare environment should be accorded to every care practitioner to enable them to improve the scope of their care deliveries in a bid to warrant social justice and accessible care in the communities.

Peer Response to Michelle’s Presentation

From my role’s perspective, I believe your proposed policy reform is justifiable and constitutes a relatively strong basis and rationale. As a profound advocate for improved practice policy reform, I can confirm that your proposed policy reform is viable and aims to overcome the pre-existing state barriers to full practice among the nursing practitioners, precisely the advanced practice nursing. I understand that while some states are still considering implementing the FPA regulation, others have enacted restrictive policies that make it relatively challenging for the subsequent APRNs to ultimately achieve full practice certification/status.

As a member of the professional nursing society, I believe the proposed policy reform would foster and improve the medical service deliveries to the members of the public. It will also accord me and the members of my team adequate opportunity to provide full practice in our underlying clinical endeavors. The policy reform advocates for the APRNs to be granted FPA at the time of licensure. This would be a quite crucial milestone in the state’s healthcare practices as it would eliminate the pre-existing complex, lengthy, and tiresome procedures before the APRNs could acquire FPA certifications (American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2020). Moreover, the policy would remove barriers limiting APRNs only to primary care settings, thereby allowing them to assume fairly independent and widespread roles in their areas of practice. However, the major drawback or negative impact of the proposed policy reform entails its limiting factor on surgical assisting nursing practitioners. Regardless, this may be understandable at this point as a fundamental measure to protect the safety of patients in the long run.

Discussion 14.1: Contemporary Health Policy Project: Peer Review

Needless to say, the policy reform would impact the APNs practice by granting them the inclusive right to full practice. This is crucial as it would allow the APNs to accord independent actions in relation to performing patient diagnosis, recommending treatment, and managing acute and chronic conditions (DePriest et al., 2020). Furthermore, it would lead to the elimination of the current board of nursing’s policy requirement of about 3,000 clinical hours of supervision before the APRNs could be granted the FPA licensure. This would be an integral approach to promoting improved patient health care outcomes among the APRNs.

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Ultimately, the proposed policy plays an integral role toward promoting social justice and equity in healthcare. Precisely, the degree of the policy reform in relation to fostering social justice and equitable healthcare access is approximately 8/10. As evident by O’Reilly-Jacob et al. (2022), adopting a less restrictive scope of practice nursing policies, including the implementation of FPA regulations, constitute a substantial framework or role in guaranteeing social justice and equitable health access among the members of the public. However, to enhance the strength of the proposed policy reform, don’t you think the policy should also campaign for other non-physician professionals, including Physician Assistance? According to DePriest et al. (2020), removing obstacles preventing PAs from optimal practice is one of the significant steps to championing improved health access in the communities.

References

American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (2020). Issues at‐a‐glance: Full practice authority. American Association of Nurse Practitioners. https://www.aanp.org/advocacy/advocacy-resource/policy-briefs/issues-full-practice-brief

Links to an external site.

DePriest, K., D’Aoust, R., Samuel, L., Commodore-Mensah, Y., Hanson, G., & Slade, E. P. (2020). Nurse practitioners’ workforce outcomes under implementation of full practice authority. Nursing outlook, 68(4), 459-467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.05.008

Links to an external site.

O’Reilly-Jacob, M., Perloff, J., Sherafat-Kazemzadeh, R., & Flanagan, J. (2022). Nurse practitioners’ perception of temporary full practice authority during a COVID-19 surge: A qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 126, 104141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.104141

Thank you for choosing my presentation to review, Romina.

To answer your question, I believe we should also campaign for other professions such as physician assistants (PAs) to have policy reform to expand their scope of practice to the full extent their education prepares them for. Similar to advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), PAs scope of practice is based on education and experience, state-level laws, policies of employers and facilities, and the needs of the patients (American Academy of Physician Assistants [AAPA], 2019). The AAPA (2019) recommends that PA scope of practice be determined at the individual organization or practice level. This would essentially mean that they are in favor of PAs having whatever level of scope of practice their organization deems fit. This would be a strategy that could benefit APRNs. Leaving the scope of practice up to the organization rather than the state would allow for scope of practice expansion in areas that were previously restricted for organizations that support APRNs having full practice authority. This could mean that an APRN could merely switch jobs or companies within their same city to potentially obtain full practice authority rather than having to jump states to obtain this. However, this does not fully expand the profession, nor does it create equality among the profession, but it would be a step in the right direction.

References

American Academy of Physician Assistants. (2019). PA scope of practice [PDF]. https://www.aapa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Issue-brief_Scope-of-Practice_0117-1.pdf

Grading Rubric Guidelines

Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
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Performance Category	10	9	8	4	0
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Performance Category	5	4	3	2	0
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