APN Specialty Licensing and Prescribing Requirements Assignment

APN Specialty Licensing and Prescribing Requirements Assignment

Nursing constitutes one of the most sensitive professionals in the contemporary world. Nurses develop interventions to promote patients’ well-being, increase their health literacy, and stimulate their self-care capacity to increase their resilience to various diseases. To gain the adequate capacity to conduct such activities, nurses undergo an educational curriculum and pass various professional examinations before obtaining a license. As such, a professional license in nursing helps confirm caregivers’ professional capacity to develop health promotion interventions before they gain regulators’ approval to provide patient care. It sets the minimum qualifications and competencies for nurse practitioners and assures public members that the pre-established standards have been met, approving the practitioner’s professional qualifications. Due to the diversity of government regulations and approaches toward community health, nursing practitioners’ licensure regulations vary among states. This study investigates the licensing requirements for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners and prescription regulations in Virginia. Advanced practice nurses in Virginia must possess a valid and unencumbered Virginia RN license and provide evidence of their educational qualification, continuous learning, and collaboration with licensed physicians to earn a prescribing authority.

All nurse practitioners in Virginia must possess a valid and unencumbered Virginia RN license. In Virginia, the Committee of the Joint Boards of Nursing and Medicine (CNM) develops and implements regulations that govern the licensure of all nurse practitioners, verified midwives, and nurse anaesthetics practising within the state (Smith et al., 2020, p. 33). The committee requires prospective nurse practitioners to complete a graduate Nurse Practitioner program within a clinical speciality in a recognized institution. Although the committee provides a list of institutions that it approves, licensing agencies may approve other programs offered by other schools as long as they possess an acceptable accreditation regarding the issuance of graduate degrees to students. Full licensure for a nurse practitioner depends on achieving national certification, whose requirements include an associate degree in nursing or a bachelor of science in nursing (Virginia Department of Health Professions, 2022). Out-of-state nurse practitioners may also obtain licensure in Virginia if they meet the minimum requirements and their current national certification. Therefore, a prospective psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner should be qualified to provide psychiatric care services to patients in Virginia.

Some advanced practice nurse specialities that possess prescribing authority include family nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anaesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. In Virginia, all advanced practice nurses do not have the authority to practice independently. Virginia State Law encourages effective professional collaboration between nurse practitioners and licensed physicians and requires advanced nurse practitioners to provide a written protocol describing their collaboration with skilled physicians (Smith et al., 2020, p. 35). However, the nurse practitioner and physician are not required to be physically present to practice. The law allows the use of diverse communication strategies between them for effective collaboration. Some advanced practice nurses that are allowed to establish such forms of collaboration with physicians include registered family nurse practitioners. They must submit documents indicating their collaboration with certified physicians before obtaining their prescription authority. Certified registered nurse anaesthetist specializes in assisting with anaesthesia during surgeries. They possess a prescribing authority to execute medical regimens under the supervision of a physician. Clinical nurse specialists practising in Virginia have the freedom to prescribe drugs and durable medical equipment with the collaboration of a physician. Such practitioners may obtain inter-state prescribing authority if they submit a collaborative practice agreement with a certified physician.

Requirements for advanced practice nurses’ prescription authority in Virginia include educational qualification, continuous learning, and evidence of collaboration with licensed physicians. A nurse practitioner who holds current certification can be granted a state-level prescriptive authority in Virginia based on recent coursework in pharmacology or pharmacotherapeutics. To be creditable, advanced practice nurses must have met educational qualifications and approval by the CNM during the 5-year period. They are also required to provide a written practice agreement with a licensed physician and a written protocol indicating their collaboration with certified physicians in the administration and prescription of drugs to patients. The Virginia Board of Nursing also requires advanced practice nurses to complete at least eight hours of continuing education in pharmacology or pharmacotherapeutics every other year to maintain their prescriptive authority (Hendricks et al., 2021, p. 249). However, they cannot prescribe medications to themselves or their family members. To ensure consistency and compliance with prescription regulations, the Board of Medicine and the Board of Nursing may request advanced practice nurses to show evidence of prescriptive authority in the practice agreement at any time. Compliance issues identified by the Board of Medicine may suspend a practitioner’s prescriptive authority.

To gain prescribing authority in Virginia, advanced practice nurses must possess a valid and unencumbered Virginia RN license and provide evidence of their educational qualification, continuous learning, and collaboration with licensed physicians. All nurse practitioners in Virginia are required by the law to possess a valid and unencumbered Virginia RN license. Advanced practice nurse specialities who possess prescribing authority include family nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anaesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. Requirements for their prescription authority include educational qualification, continuous learning, and evidence of collaboration with licensed physicians.

References

Smith, S., Buchanan, H., & Cloutier, R. (2020). Virginia NP scope of practice: A legislative case study. The Nurse Practitioner, 45(2), 33-37. https://journals.lww.com/tnpj/Fulltext/2020/02000/Virginia_NP_scope_of_practice__A_legislative_case.7.aspx

Virginia Department of Health Professions. (2022). Laws and regulations. https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/Boards/Nursing/PractitionerResources/LawsRegulations/

Hendricks, B., Rudisill, T., Pesarsick, J., Wen, S., Dotson, T., Wood, N., & Smith, G. S. (2021). Prescription drug monitoring program policy reform: human and veterinary practitioner prescribing in West Virginia, 2008–2020. Journal of public health policy, 42(2), 249-257. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-021-00275-0