Homework: NURSE PRACTICE ACT COMPARISON POWERPOINT
Power Point Format Expectations
It is important that students understand that the legal parameters of APN practice vary tremendously across the United States. Each state has its own laws regarding the scope of practice for APNs. This homework is to compare the nurse practice acts (or whatever the name of the statute that controls APN practice) -and the accompanying rules for administration for those acts-in two states: the one where you live/work now and another state to be assigned by course faculty shortly after the semester has begun. You are to develop a detailed and scholarly PowerPoint presentation that adheres to APA format for any references, as well as the standard rules of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Bullet point format should be used for most slides; in other words, few slides should have full paragraphs. However, there should be enough detail in the entire presentation that anyone reading the slides would have the answers to the questions below-but copying lengthy sections of a statute should be avoided. Excellent summarizing and paraphrasing-rather than just copying and pasting whole sections of a statute-is actually encouraged. Side-by-side comparison of information can be effective, assuming the slide is not too "busy."
Background Information about State Regulations
Note that you must actually read the practice acts and the accompanying rules of the states assigned. But the good news is that the language about APN practice is usually located in a single, identifiable section of each act; therefore, you may focus on only the part of the acts specific to advanced practice nurses. I have noted elsewhere that you should not rely on the summaries done by Carolyn Buppert in our textbook simply because in any given year a state may change its act. The Nurse Practitioner Journal article, 28th annual legislative update: Advancements continue for APRN practice can be helpful, although again any statute might have been revised since that article was published. The article can be found on the course home page under articles, videos and power-points for weekly homework.
Finally, there is yet another resource for this homework, which is provided by Barton Associates, which is a locum tenens staffing company.
This site was discovered by one of our students who took previously. Below is the link for a very interesting color-coded diagram indicating the various elements of practice acts for all of the states and Washington, D.C. This may not be up to date.
While the references are instructive in terms of the frameworks of nurse practice acts in different states, you still must still read the actual statutes and rules of the both states.
The accompanying rules for administration are often contained in an entirely different document from the practice act itself. What is the difference between statutes and rules? The statute is the law passed by the each state's legislature; it is usually more general in its verbiage and is comparable to a policy. Rules, on the other hand, are written by government employees in the state agency/regulatory body and are much more specific like procedures.
Locating the practice acts for each state can be tricky: Some states have an actual governmental agency called the Board of Nursing; however, in other states, the "Board of Nursing" is simply an advisory committee comprised of volunteer members--which is true in Illinois. Illinois, like a few other states, has a "mega-agency" that regulates professionals in a whole host of professions. Illinois' regulatory agency has the title of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) and oversees not just health professionals, but wrestlers, hairdressers, real estate agents, bankers, and the list goes on and on. Then there are some states that regulate nurses through their state departments of health. However, there are two resources listed on your syllabus that should be helpful:
National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
State Nurses Associations.
Once again, do not rely on Buppert for information about these state agencies, since the information about Illinois and many other states is not correct. The Advanced Practice Nursing Board in Illinois merged with the "regular" Board of Nursing (that oversees the practices of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses) in 2007 and, as I noted above, is only a voluntary board that advises the staff of IDFPR. The final authority for the practice of any professional licensed by IDFPR is the Secretary of the Department.
This is how you should begin this homework. Early in your PowerPoint presentation, I would like you to indicate the "names" of the two acts that you are comparing, as I did with the Illinois Nurse Practice Act above (ILCS Compiled Statutes 65/60-1 -- 65/75-20)...or how the acts you are comparing are legally "named." Once you provide the legal names of both practice acts in your presentation, you do not have to refer to that name anywhere else in the presentation (not even at the end). BUT I would like to see citations on the slides as you address the various elements.
So, in Illinois, for example, when you describe the scope of practice of an APN, you would note somewhere on the slide that you obtained that information from § 65-30 (§ is the symbol for section). And you should make that citation in much smaller (but readable) font than the rest of the text on the slide. By the way, the easiest way to get that section symbol into your presentation is probably to go into Microsoft Word, find the "insert" tab in the top toolbar, find the "symbol" icon (in my version of Word, it is the last option on the right), and find the symbol, which seems to be in the category of "Basic Latin," and just copy and paste that symbol into a slide. Once you do that, you should be able to just copy and paste that symbol from one slide to another. Due to space constraints some liberties must be taken with APA format; But you do owe the reader enough information so that he or she could find the source of the information for each slide if so desired.
The presentation must compare and contrast how each state addresses the following issues:
I. What is the exact title that is used to identify advanced practice nurses as a whole? Which specialties of APNs that we have discussed in this course are included in whatever APN title(s) each state uses? Are these titles "protected"? If not all specialties are specifically noted in the nurse practice act (NPA), in what other statute are these other specialties licensed and which state agency regulates their practice?
II. How is licensure addressed; that is, must APNs have separate RN and APN licenses?
III. What are the requirements for education and certification of each type of APN?
IV. Compare and contrast how APN oversight is addressed in each state: Is there physician oversight? If so, is it: Supervision (written or unwritten agreements) or collaboration (written or unwritten agreements)? Or is there independent/autonomous authority? If independent authority, are there specific requirements before an APN is eligible for this autonomy? Are other limitations to this autonomy (e.g., must submit a formulary of medications that the APN will prescribe, etc.)?
V. What body is responsible for controlling APN practice? Board of Nursing (or its equivalent)? Board of Medicine? Both Board of Nursing and Board of Medicine? Some other entity (e.g., Department of Health)? Is there APN representation on the Board of Nursing (or its equivalent) and if so, how many APNs are required?
VI. What is allowed or not allowed in terms of prescriptive authority and how does it relate to the issue of supervision or collaboration described above? Is the dispensing of sample medications specifically mentioned one way or the other? What are the regulations about controlled substances (e.g., must APNs obtain a controlled substance license from their state prior to applying for a DEA number)? What are the other requirements regarding prescriptive authority?
VII. How does each statute address the components of the APRN Consensus Model for Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (a.k.a., LACE)? NOTE: It is unlikely that any practice act will specifically mention the terms APRN Consensus Model or LACE. Your task is to interpret and convey if there are any requirements in either act that seem to correspond to any of the components of LACE (albeit in other words).
VIII. Do the practice acts specifically address APNs having hospital admitting and/or discharging privileges or otherwise mention some other type of hospital clinical privileges? If so, describe the details of those privileges. (Note: APNs simply being able to perform admission history and physicals is NOT the same as having admission privileges.) If privileges are not addressed in the statutes or rules, review TNPJ article for this information.
IX. Do the practice acts address reimbursement for APN services? If not noted in the practice acts themselves, what does the TNPJ article have to say about this topic? Also, what other elements of scope of practice are noted either in the practice acts or the diagram on the Barton Associates website?
X. Overall appearance of PowerPoint slides: Appropriate graphics are encouraged (but, please, no graphics of women wearing nurses' caps!). There should be some color to the slides. Points will be deducted if the following are not present: (i) Slides should include appropriate citations that correspond to the reference list at the end of the presentation, (ii) proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Again, much of the content should be formatted in bullet points and legal language should be carefully paraphrased. It is acceptable (indeed, desirable) for citations to be in a much smaller font compared to the rest of the words on a slide.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.