A study from the University of Pennsylvania supports efforts to expand the authority of nurse practitioners, or NPs. Researchers at the Penn School of Nursing found that nurse practitioners would be 20 percent more likely to work in primary care in Pennsylvania if the state eliminated the requirement that they have a contract with physicians.
The Penn Nursing study suggested that removing the restrictions would increase access to healthcare for the elderly, medicaid patients and rural communities.
State lawmakers are considering measures that would give NPs full practice authority. A compromise proposal would allow nurse practitioners to practice for 3 years and 3,600 hours under a collaborative agreement with two physicians, as they do today. After completing that transition, they would have full practice authority and no longer be mandated to obtain these contracts.
