Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate bill passed earlier this month is helping expand patients' access to quality medical care in Utah by giving full practice authority to nurse practitioners.
Full practice authority allows nurse practitioners to provide medical care independently without the oversight of a physician.
SB36, sponsored by Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, was signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on March 14. This law eliminated the last barrier forcing nurse practitioners to hold a contract with a physician as a condition of their state licensure.
Removing that barrier and establishing full practice authority in its place has opened up options for nurse practitioners to operate their own practice. It will also give patients a greater number of options for receiving medical care.
April Kapu, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, expressed gratitude toward Cox.
"I think it was a very strong bipartisan movement to update that last law so that nurse practitioners could practice to the full extent of their education and training," Kapu said. "Now patients have the full benefit of the care that nurse practitioners provide."
Utah is the 27th state, along with two U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., to adopt full practice authority. Five of those states have adopted the regulation within the past 2½ to 3 years, Kapu said.
"There is momentum, a lot of momentum, and it's because we're helping to address some major health care challenges today," Kapu said. "We have an increasing physician workforce shortage, and nurse practitioners are really helping to step up and meet this need."
More than 100 million Americans lack access to primary care, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. Kapu said she has seen better medical services, an increase in workers and greater access to health care in the states enforcing full practice authority.
"What this means is that NPs are … being able to provide care across all settings, to the fullest extent of their education and training," Kapu said. "And now in those states, patients have gotten direct access to that care."
Melissa Hinton, legislative committee co-chair of the Utah Nurse Practitioners, said implementing full practice authority in Utah is going to create a competitive market. It will also draw other nurse practitioners to the state and give patients more medical care providers to choose from.
Having a greater number of nurse practitioners in Utah will encourage more of them to spread out to rural areas, allowing remote Utahns to have the same quality of care that is found in a city.
Nurse practitioners are also easier to schedule appointments with, Hinton said.
"Nurse practitioners typically have a more open schedule, and they spend a little bit more time with their patients," she explained.
Opposition to full practice authority
Hinton said part of the reason it has taken so long for many states, including Utah, to adopt full practice authority is because of opposition from medical groups, including the National Medical Association.
"They prefer not to have nurse practitioners be able to do the skills that we're trained to do, allowing physicians to do those parts of health care that they feel like should be solely theirs," Hinton said.
Hinton said there are some services that nurse practitioners cannot provide, in which case they still have to refer patients to a specialist. But she emphasized that effective health care is a collaborative effort.
"We collaborate with all providers across disciplines to make sure that the patient has well-rounded care," Hinton said. "That means as colleagues, we are working with our physician colleagues and our physician assistant colleagues, and we respect them on the same playing field that we are on."
A 2015 study published by the International Journal of Quality Health Care found that advanced practice nurses, including nurse practitioners, provide care that is equal to physicians and even better than physicians in some categories.
"We really do feel like this is a collegial relationship, … and that patient care is the priority," Hinton said. "If we have nurse practitioners that can do what they're trained to do, then the patient has more equitable access and easier access to health care than they would have before."
