Scope of Future Role as a PMHNP, Regulation, Accreditation and Credentialing

Introduction

The advanced practice registered nurse or APRN position has steadily grown in importance in the United States. This is because the role that they play in plugging the gap between physicians and the population is immense. It is a common fact that the number of physicians practicing is virtually inversely proportional to that of the population they are supposed to be serving. To become an advanced practice nurse, one must complete a rigorous accredited postgraduate course in their specialty NUR 513 – Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper. This postgraduate degree is currently recommended to be a PhD as the entry level to practice. After meeting these educational requirements, the psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) for instance has then to be certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Centre (ANCC) (ANCC, N.D.) and receive licensure to practice from the State in which they intend to practice. The role APRNs have come to play has become quite significant, given the fact that many communities that are socio-economically deprived are not able to access the expensive health services offered by the country’s physicians. What these populations need is affordable healthcare brought to them where they can easily access it, conveniently. This is primary health care (PHC), and the frontline clinicians that are going to champion it going forward are the APRNs. This paper will look at the future roles of the nurse practitioner (in this case a PMHNP) and their scope, the regulatory framework governing their practice, accreditation and credentialing, nursing professional organizations they can join, and one controversial matter related to the practice of a PMHNP. NUR 513 – Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper.

Scope of Future Role as a PMHNP, Regulation, Accreditation and Credentialing

At present, the role of the nurse practitioner and its scope are very much a factor of the state legislation and regulations that govern nurse practitioner practice. In states that guarantee full autonomy of practice (full practice authority or FPA), the PMHNP evaluates mentally ill patients, diagnoses, orders investigations and interprets them independently before ordering appropriate treatment and making follow up (Maryville University, 2019). This is the full scope of the role that the PMHNP will be practicing in the future, because the movement to have universal full practice authority across states is unstoppable. Regulation of practice of PMHNPs and by extension all other APRNs is done through state legislation. Different states have different regulatory structures for APRNs (AANP, 2018). Across the fifty states, there are those whose regulatory structure is that of full practice authority. However, other states still have a regulatory structure of either reduced practice or restricted practice (AANP, 2018). These last two regulatory structures are restrictive and prohibitive to the nurse practitioner, preventing them from exercising their knowledge and training to the full extent of their abilities. As stated above, full practice authority regulatory structure permits the nurse practitioner to practice without any supervision or hindrance. Reduced practice, on the other hand, requires that the nurse practitioner enters into a collaborative agreement with a practicing physician so that they can effectively practice under them NUR 513 – Benchmark – Future Scope, Role, and Professional Obligations Paper. Lastly, the worst regulatory framework is the restricted practice arrangement. In the states with this kind of APRN regulation, the nurse practitioner is only allowed to do a few things which also have to be done under the supervision of a physician (AANP, 2018). There are a total of 23 states that have a full practice authority regulatory structure as at 2017. These include Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Hawaii, Washington D.C., New Mexico, and so on. The remaining are either reduced or restricted practice. Reduced practice states for APRNs include Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Utah, Louisiana, and so on. Lastly are the worst states to practice in as APRNs. These have licensure laws that only allow restricted practice which give the APRN very little room to flourish. These states include Florida, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and California, amongst others (Maryville University, 2019; AANP, 2018).

The future of the PMHNP and other APRNs however looks bright and their traditional role as seen above is definitely set to expand. This is because there is a shortage of physicians as they move to the super specialties leaving disciplines like family medicine with severe shortages of manpower. APRNs are the cadre that will fill this vacancy (Maryville University, 2019). After education and training the PMHNP is expected to get certification before ap

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