Law Commons^™

Improving America's Health Care: Authorizing Independent Prescriptive Privileges For Advanced Practice Nurses, Mary M. Beck

Faculty Publications

Nursing and organized medicine are engaged in a heated and emotional debate over independent prescriptive privileges for advanced practice nurses. Uncontroverted data demonstrates that nurse practitioners provide high quality health care at a reduced cost, while increasing access to health care for under-served populations. It is apparent that advanced practice nurses could improve the delivery of American health care. However, organized medicine is opposed to autonomous advanced nursing practice and lobbies powerfully against it. Currently, the majority of state laws and regulations pertaining to advanced practice nursing do not promote a sound public health policy, do not contemplate liability issues …