Certification and education as determinants of nurse practitioner scope of practice: An investigation of the rules and regulations defining NP scope of practice in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
In 2008, a consortium of advanced practice nursing organizations authored the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation: Licensure, Accreditation, Certification, and Education. The document's aim is to provide guidance for states to adopt uniformity in the regulation of advanced practice registered nurse roles. Despite a target date to complete that work by 2015, there remains an extensive amount of variation in how states define the scope of practice (SOP) for nurse practitioners (NPs).


METHODS
Based on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing online database, state (N = 51 [includes the District of Columbia]) NP practice acts and/or rules and regulations documents were examined for language describing SOP for NPs consistent with the language of the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) Consensus Model.


CONCLUSIONS
Results indicated that 18 states and the District of Columbia (37%) had specific regulations defining NP SOP by certification and/or educational preparation while 23 (45%) did not. The remaining nine states (18%) had SOP regulations that were interpreted as being ambiguous in relation to certification and/or educational preparation.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest much work is needed to ensure NP SOP accurately reflects NP board-certification and graduate educational preparation.
College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.
Christopher W
CW
Blackwell
College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.
Donna Felber
DF
Neff
D002568:Certification; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses' / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States
Acute care nurse practitioner; adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner; advanced practice nursing; nurse practitioner certification; nurse practitioner education; nurse practitioner scope of practice