Licensure, accreditation, certification, and education
In 2008, after several years of heated debate among members of >70 nursing organizations, a consensus model governing advanced practice nursing was ratified. This document outlined requirements for licensure, accreditation, certification, and education of the 4 primary advanced practice nursing roles.13 According to the model, the 4 nursing roles would address 1 of 6 major patient populations: neonatal, pediatric, adult-geriatric, family, women’s health/gender-related, and psychiatric. Licensure in each state would be converted to APRN from the existing 26 titles. Each student would have to graduate from a nationally accredited program. In addition to health promotion and advanced roles, educational programs would be required to include advanced courses in pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, and physicalassessment as well as population-specific courses in these same categories. In addition, supervised clinical hour minimums were established for the various population-specific programs.
Concomitantly, graduate educational programs were wrestling with the 2005 statement from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) that all advanced practice nursing education should be at the doctoral level by 2015. Because of the knowledge explosion, nurses needed more than what could be achieved in a master’s program to meet practice requirements as well as leadership, systems evaluation, quality improvement, research, and program development. Currently, there are 264 Doctor of Nursing Practice programs in the United States with less than one-half having a PMHNP program.14
Nursing education at the collegiate level has been evolving, which is fostered and supported by the 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on the Future of Nursing that identified 4 key recommendations to promote a workforce at capacity to help care for our nation’s growing population:
- Remove scope of practice barriers
- Expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts
- Implement nurse residency programs
- Increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80% by 2020.
The current status of advanced practice nursing
Each of the 50 states is in varying levels of compliance with the 2015 mandates from the consensus model and the AACN. From the psychiatric workforce perspective, many state boards of nursing are concerned because titles often are linked to legislative statute or rules. Despite the 2010 IOM recommendations and the FTC, the American Medical Association (AMA) has stationed AMA lobbyists in the legislatures that are poised to open the nurse practice act to comply with the consensus model. The sole purpose of these lobbyists is to block independent practice for APRNs in the 26 states that are seeking this status and to remove independent practice from the states where it already exists. For example, in Washington the title is ARNP but to change it to APRN will require opening the state’s legislative action. The AMA is eager to remove the autonomy that has existed in that state since 1978. One of the reasons is because where the APRN is required to be in a collaborative or supervisory relationship with a physician, the physician can charge the APRN to be compliant with state regulations. (In some states, the APRN cannot see patients or be on call if the collaborator is on vacation).
This has turned into a cottage industry for many physicians. However, there are many who do not charge because they are able to add additional patients to the practice by adding an APRN and generate more revenue. Others do not charge because they are supportive and committed to the APRN role.