During the pandemic, many states increased nurse practitioners’ ability to provide care to the full extent of their clinical education and licensure, including via telehealth. This expanded health care providers’ capacity and shortened wait times for patients.
The arrangement apparently was popular not only with patients but also with other health care providers, a new poll found.
The poll, commissioned by the Alliance for Connected Care and conducted by Morning Consult, showed 82% of patients and nearly 80% of health care providers — including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses and therapists — either “strongly support” or “somewhat support” NPs being allowed to practice “to the full extent of their training.”
“The results of this survey come as no surprise, given the high-quality health care NPs deliver — in person and via telehealth — and the high degree of trust patients place in NPs,” April N. Kapu, DNP, APRN, ACNP- BC, FAANP, FCCM, FAAN, president of AANP, said in a press release. “Recently, both New York and Kansas enacted legislation that removes barriers to NP-delivered care. Currently 26 states have ‘full practice authority.’ It’s time for the remaining 24 states to do the same, and this poll clearly shows most Americans support that action.”
Georgia is currently not one of the states granting full practice authority. Advanced practice registered nurses — a group the includes nurse practitioners — gained some additional authority in 2020, when Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law SB 321, which grants APRNs authority to order radiographic imaging tests in non-life-threatening situations, as delegated by a physician.
Nurse practitioners deliver high-quality health care in more than 1 billion patient visits each year, according to the press release. With more than 355,000 licensed NPs in the United States, U.S. News and World Report recently ranked the NP role No. 1 on its 2022 best health care jobs list.
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