Using State Board of Nursing data to estimate the number of nurse practitioners in the United States.
Knowing the number of nurse practitioners, both at the state and national levels, is important to those dealing with health care policy and education. To determine these numbers, we telephoned all state boards of nursing, and asked whether they distinguished nurse practitioners from other registered nurses and what the respective numbers were. Data were available from a time period beginning in March 1992 and ending in September 1992. Thirty-four states, representing 70.6 percent of all registered nurses, now distinguish nurse practitioners from other nurses. In these states, 1.35 percent of all registered nurses are nurse practitioners. Projecting this percentage to the states that do not make the distinction yields a total of 33,834 nurse practitioners in the United States. Using neighboring states rather than the national average as a predictor for no-data states leads to a national total estimate of 31,294. When corrected for multistate licensure, the final estimated number is 27,226. This estimating method should yield even more accurate data in the future as more states certify and list their nurse practitioners. This method enumerates nurse practitioners as defined by the various states, which have highly variable definitions of what a nurse practitioner is. However, the variability in legal definition is decreasing as more states require national certification.
Morgan
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Department of Family Practice, University of California, Davis.
D002568:Certification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D008008:Licensure, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009726:Nurses / Q000600:supply & distribution; D011365:Professional Practice Location / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States