The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) commends Sens. Merkley (D-OR) and Lummis (R-WY) for introducing the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (ICAN) Act in the U.S. Senate.
This legislation would strengthen healthcare access for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries by removing federal barriers to practice for nurse practitioners (NPs) and other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).
“Every day, nurse practitioners are striving to meet our country’s growing need for high-quality healthcare in all practice settings yet outdated federal barriers limit patient access to NP-provided care,” says AANP President Stephen Ferrara, DNP. “This important legislation will move our nation’s healthcare system toward one that more accurately reflects the modern healthcare workforce. It is vital that the millions of Medicare and Medicaid patients who choose NPs receive timely access to high-quality healthcare. AANP applauds the introduction of the ICAN Act by Senators Merkley and Lummis in the U.S. Senate, and we urge its swift passage by Congress.”
NPs are the fastest-growing Medicare provider group, and approximately 40% of Medicare beneficiaries receive NP-delivered care. The ICAN Act would improve timely access to care by authorizing NPs to order cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, certify when patients with diabetes need therapeutic shoes, have their patients fully included in the beneficiary attribution process for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, refer patients for medical nutrition therapy, certify and recertify a patient’s terminal illness for hospice eligibility, perform all mandatory examinations in skilled nursing facilities, and more.
AANP strongly supports the ICAN Act and efforts to modernize policies to ensure every American has timely access to high-quality healthcare from their chosen healthcare provider. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives introduced companion legislation that has garnered the support of more than 235 national, state, and local organizations.
Nursing certifications are essential for nurses and provide additional assurance that the RNs caring for patients are competent, well-trained, seasoned professionals.
Numerous studies demonstrate that nurse certification improves patient care and safety. According to a 2002 poll, more than 73% of individuals pick a hospital that employs a more significant proportion of nurses with specialty certification.
Types of Nursing Certifications
Various nursing certifications are available for nurses who want to advance in their professions. Depending on your profession and education level, some are accessible. Others consider your specialty.
First, certificates are offered for various stages of the nursing profession, starting with CNAs and LPN Nurses and progressing to APRNs with MSN training. There are predetermined certificates available for each nursing level. Some nursing credentials, such as those aimed at RNs or APRNs, are specifically intended for that nursing level. However, some could be accessible to both.
Additionally, certificates are based on your specialty and determined by your goals and interests. For example, you can obtain certification in cancer, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, and many more specialist fields.
What Nursing Certifications Are Most Important for New Graduates?
Although there is a severe shortage of nurses, getting the nursing career of your dreams right out of nursing school may be difficult.
Certifications are among the things that will unquestionably improve your marketability as a newly qualified nurse. So let’s examine the best nursing credentials for recent graduates that will offer you an advantage over other applicants.
The minimum standard for nurses is widely considered certification in essential life support (BLS). This specific qualification is suitable for two years before needing to be renewed. It confirms your knowledge and proficiency in properly using AEDs and establishes your capacity to perform CPR.
Another essential qualification for fresh graduates wishing to work as nurses is Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS). Building on the BLS framework, ACLS certifies a person’s capacity to detect and respond to cardiac arrest and other cardiovascular crises.
Nursing Certifications for LPNs
By finishing a CME Nurse Practitioner program, you may start the road to a fantastic nursing profession. Your LPN education will equip you to provide high-caliber, competent patient-centered care. In addition, pursuing LPN qualifications to improve your employment and pay changes is also an excellent idea.
You can deliver drugs intravenously if you have a certification in IV therapy.
Your long-term care certification will demonstrate your capacity to care for patients at home or in long-term care institutions.
LPNs with wound care certification can clean and treat a variety of wounds. Therefore, when employing LPNs, hospitals and long-term care centers strongly favor candidates with this certification.
Nursing Certifications for Registered Nurses
An Associate’s Degree in Nursing or a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, which is fast becoming the requirement for becoming a registered nurse, can be earned.
You can begin your RN profession after passing the NCLEX-RN. However, being certified in fields that interest you might be wise if you want to set yourself apart.
There are several certifications available once you have obtained your RN license, and here is where your goals, interests, and long-term career aspirations will come into play. These certificates include, among others:
The Holistic Nursing Certification is an excellent choice for RNs who desire to specialize in patient care that emphasizes the patient’s body, mind, and spirit.
The Nurse Executive Certification is essential for nurses who want to work in senior leadership roles in the healthcare industry. Nurses with a BSN or higher degree can apply for this form of accreditation.
APRNs’ Nursing Certifications
If you pursue an advanced practice registered nurse career, you’ll need to pick a nursing specialty and work for board certification in that field. A few of the most popular APRN certificates include:
Family nurse specialist: Nurse Practitioners frequently choose this qualification because family nurse practitioner ranks among the most in-demand nursing jobs.
The “go-to” qualification for nurses who desire to devote their substantial knowledge and abilities to care for the elderly is the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Certification.
Nurse Anesthetist Certification. It is understandable why this certification is so highly sought-after, given that nurse anesthetists earn the highest salaries among nurses.
Bottom Line
While acquiring a state license is necessary to practice nursing, certification is typically optional. But being certified is a great way to further your nursing profession. In addition, your CV will be unique, which may be necessary for the competitive nursing employment market.
A new Pennsylvania study published in Health Affairs shows that Medicare support for clinical training for nurse practitioners would increase their numbers and address the national shortage of primary care.
Co-author Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, said, “One in four Americans, or over 80 million people, lack a primary care provider. Nurse practitioners with advanced clinical training in primary care help the public obtain health care when they need it. There are plenty of qualified applicants to university NP programs, but admissions are limited because we don’t have enough primary care clinicians to supervise student learners in their practices.”
The Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration, launched under the Affordable Care Act, provided selected hospitals with Medicare funding to help offset costs associated with clinical training of NPs. The funded hospitals were:
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA
Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC
Rush University Hospital in Chicago, IL
Scottsdale Healthcare Medical Center in Scottsdale, AZ
These hospitals created partnerships with university NP educational programs. The largest of the funded sites was the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which served as a regional hub for a network comprising 9 universities with NP graduate programs, multiple hospitals and health systems, and many community-based primary care practices.
Co-author Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said, “The GNE Demonstration shows that longstanding challenges in health care like the shortage of primary care providers can be successfully addressed when health care organizations in communities band together for the common good. Working together in Philadelphia across health systems, public clinics, private medical practices, and schools of nursing, we were able to recruit a larger number of practicing physicians and nurse practitioners to mentor NP students to help them meet their 2 clinical training requirements of 500 or more hours thus enabling nursing schools to accept more student NPs.”
First author Joshua Porat-Dahlerbruch notes, “The cost of clinical training for one nurse practitioner in the GNE Demonstration was about $47,000 compared to the cost of clinical training for a primary care physician of over $157,000.”
The GNE funds were used to support preceptors mostly practicing in community-based settings. The GNE Demonstration also showed the success and feasibility of using regional consortia to distribute Medicare training funds to a limited number of hospitals for training nurse practitioner students. This is a promising way to modernize Medicare graduate medical education to produce more of primary care providers that this country needs.
Funding for the study was from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the National Institute of Nursing Research/NIH.
As emergency changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were made permanent, the past year saw significant progress toward increased independent practice authority for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), according to the Nurse Practitioner’s34th Annual Legislative Update.
“Relaxation of existing regulations in supervision, collaboration, license renewal, and portability due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic improved practice authority for APRNs in reduced- and restricted-practice states,” writes Susanne J. Phillips, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, of the University of California, Irvine, in her introduction to the annual report on legislative developments in APRN practice.
In states that have enacted Full Practice Authority (FPA), NPs and other APRNs are having an impact. The report cites evidence from a recent study indicating that “states with FPA are associated with improved access to care in underserved and rural communities without compromising quality of care.”
Many states opting to retain emergency scope of practice expansions
As the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the US in 2020, many states adopted temporary, emergency regulations to expand the role of APRNs. These changes increased practice authority for all types of APRNs, including not only nurse practitioners and certified nurse practitioners, but also certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists.
As the pandemic enters its third year, the 2021 report observes further progress in scope of practice laws. The report observes that “many states have permanently adopted regulations and enacted new laws authorizing full-practice authority (FPA) with and without transition to practice (TTP) periods in 2021. States that have proceeded to make their emergency regulations permanent or enacted new laws expanding practice authority for APRNs include:
Delaware and Massachusetts have passed amendments resulting in full practice authority. With its new law, Delaware joins North Dakota as the second state to join the “APRN Compact,” which allows APRNs to hold one multistate license with a privilege to practice in other compact states.
Two additional states enacted laws expanding practice authority, including a new pathway for full independent practice authority in Arkansas and a shorter time to practice period (from 5 years to 2 years) authorizing NPs to practice independently.
Several other states – including Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma – have enacted new laws or updated regulations improving practice authority for APRNs.
Other states have adopted laws authorizing APRNs and other providers to provide and be reimbursed for home health care and telehealth services.
Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine, and Washington passed other changes improving reimbursement for APRN services.
Dr. Phillips notes that at the end of 2021, APRNs have full, autonomous practice and prescriptive authority in 14 states and the District of Columbia, and full practice authority following a transition to practice period in another 10 states.
Texas
A&M University recently announced that the College of Nursing has
received approval for its Center
of Excellence in Forensic Nursing, transitioning the forensic nursing
program into a state- and federally funded center. The new designation will
help expand the capabilities and funding resource opportunities, pushing
forward the College of Nursing’s initiative to advance forensic nursing
education, outreach, and research.
Forensic
nursing is a specialty role focused on the intersection of health care,
criminal justice, and the legal system. Registered nurses and advanced practice
registered nurses can specialize in forensic nursing, allowing them to provide
specialized care in the areas of interpersonal violence prevention, intervention,
investigation, and post-trauma care. Areas of practice within this specialty
include sexual assault, death investigation, corrections, disaster aftermath,
risk management, intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, elder
mistreatment, and human trafficking.
Nancy Fahrenwald, PhD, RN, PHNA-BC, FAAN, professor and dean of the Texas A&M College of Nursing, tells today.tamu.edu, “The Center of Excellence in Forensic Nursing will accelerate multidisciplinary efforts to devise and implement comprehensive strategies that address interpersonal violence across the life span. We are now in the best position to engage scholars throughout The Texas A&M University System to develop and disseminate new knowledge, positively impacting health and social outcomes for those affected by violence.”
Texas
A&M’s new Center of Excellence in Forensic Nursing allows for an expansion
of the college’s Master of Science degree and graduate certificate in forensic
nursing programs. The Center will also provide interdisciplinary and
professional education course trainings available to health care providers, law
enforcement agencies, social workers, and others seeking advanced education in
treating victims of violence.
To
learn more about the newly designated Center of Excellence in Forensic Nursing
in the Texas A&M University College of Nursing, visit here.
