California Future Health Workforce Commission Calls for Expanding Role of NPs
CANP issued the following statement regarding the Febraury 4, 2019 release of the California Future Health Workforce Commission report "Meeting the Demand for Health," which recommends expanded roles for nurse practionoers in order to help assure direct access to care for California’s growing and diverse population.
“The California Future Health Workforce Commission’s recommendations to expand the use of NPs by giving them full practice authority will provide the direct access to quality health care that many Californians desperately need. We applaud the commission’s comprehensive process that included multiple hearings with respected experts. The recommendations also fall in line with other recent studies that show NPs are ready to step up and provide quality care in communities across California.” – Karen Bradley, DNP; President, California Association for Nurse Practitioners
The recommendation from the California Future Health Workforce Commission report calls for maximizing the role of NPs to help fill the gaps in primary care.
These recommendations include the following:
- Reforming scope of practice regulations to give NPs full practice authority after a transitional period of collaboration with a physician or experienced NP.
- Maximizing full use of NP skills within current scope of practice regulations.
- Expanding NP education to increase the supply of primary care providers in underserved communities.
According to the Impact Summary from the Health Workforce Commission, reforming NP scope of practice regulations would result in the following:
- Increase the growth rate of NP supply by 25%.
- Increase the number of NPs working in rural communities.
- Increase the share of Californians receiving annual adult checkups by 5%.
In addition, full practice authority for NPs would result in significant cost savings to Californians from reduced avoidable emergency department stays and hospitalizations, and the lower costs of retail clinic use and primary care.
According to the impact report “there would be nearly 50,000 fewer revisits to emergency departments for ambulatory sensitive conditions, resulting in cost savings of more than $58 million per year. If full practice authority is achieved in 2020, total cost savings would be $522 million by 2028.”
Finally, expanding nurse practitioner education to increase the supply of primary care providers would help eliminate the shortage of primary care clinicians.
Read the full report, or read the recommendations regarding nurse practitioners. To learn more about the California Future Health Workforce Commission visit futurehealthworkforce.org.
To learn more about the California Association for Nurse Practitioners visit canpweb.org.