{"id":10098,"date":"2022-10-06T14:53:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T18:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/?p=10098"},"modified":"2024-12-17T10:12:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T15:12:56","slug":"fnp-scope-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/fnp-scope-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the FNP Scope of Practice?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learn about the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) scope of practice and how that has evolved in recent years, as the demand for primary and preventive care grows.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent research from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC<\/a>) found that, in this country, we will lack between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians<\/strong> by the year 2034. These numbers encompass primary care and specialty care physicians.<\/p>\n

When Americans face limits to treatment access, wellness appointments are put off, thereby diminishing overall personal health. This ultimately makes urgent medical visits more possible and frequent, and thus exacerbates an increasing problem in the U.S: the demand for care is outpacing availability. If only America\u2019s healthcare system could address this challenge with an existing solution.<\/p>\n

Let’s now consider the Family Nurse Practitioner, or FNP, who is a type of advanced practice registered nurse (APRN). FNPs work with adults, children, women, and others across the lifespan, evaluating both normal and complex health cases. They often serve as primary care practitioners and help to meet the increasing need for quality, preventive healthcare. FNPs are required to obtain a master’s degree<\/a> from an accredited institution. In an FNP-APRN program, students train through\u202fa robust curriculum<\/a> and over 600 hours of hands-on, clinical experience\u202fso that they are prepared to practice.<\/p>\n

What are some of the distinctions between physicians and FNPs? What makes the FNP scope of practice different from a physician\u2019s work<\/a> with the same patients? We\u2019ve reviewed the latest on hot-button topics around the FNP scope of practice today.<\/p>\n

Physician vs. FNP Scope of Practice Overview<\/h2>\n

Salary and time spent in school are what set physicians and APRNs apart. Both FNPs and physicians enjoy autonomy in the workplace as well as a competitive salary. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, APRNs made an average of\u202f$123,780 per year<\/a>\u202fin 2021. Most relevant to our conversation about FNPs, pediatricians make\u202f$198,420<\/a>\u202fannually, and family and general practitioners make\u202f$235,930<\/a> per year. It\u2019s clear that physicians are one of the best-paid job pathways in the country.<\/p>\n

However, the bad news is that the\u202fphysician job is growing<\/a>\u202fat only a 3% rate, or slower than average, between 2020 and 2030. The good news?\u202fAPRN job growth<\/a>\u202fis trending at a 45% growth rate<\/strong> between 2020 and 2030, or much faster than average, to meet an approximate 29,400 openings annually over the decade.<\/p>\n

One can make many inferences into the practical reasons for both trends. Perhaps financing the cost of a Doctorate is not possible for many students today. Maybe the required time in school and a residency, which can be up to nine years, is too great. APRNs can obtain their education in much less time\u2014as few as\u202f27 months<\/a>! The time that it takes to graduate from student to professional is particularly relevant when we\u2019re discussing a decade\u2019s worth of distress from a shortage of medical workers. Some may find that a happy balance between their professional career and personal life is better obtained by becoming an APRN as opposed to a physician. This is where our discussion of the FNP scope of practice gets interesting.<\/p>\n

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division (HMD) along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Veteran\u2019s Health Administration (VHA), among others, have a solution in mind. They recognize that the scope of practice for FNPs is so robust that they should be able to use their education and training to meet many patients’ needs currently unduly restricted to treatment by physicians. Furthermore, withholding their skills and qualifications from individuals in need of health care treatment is a travesty, especially when so many people have difficulty obtaining access to qualified care. The initiative to allow APRNs to practice all of their skills is called Full Practice Authority (FPA). Professional groups such as the\u202fAmerican Nurses Association (ANA)<\/a>\u202fare attempting to promote FPA across state laws to ensure that APRNs, such as FNPs, are not unfairly limited in their scope of practice.<\/p>\n

The FNP Scope of Practice<\/h2>\n

Scope of practice concerns a healthcare provider\u2019s ability to deploy their healing skills on patients and to achieve the best possible outcome, within their social contract and obligation to standards of practice.<\/a> One of the challenges that the ANA and other FPA advocates meet is that each state governs the scope of practice rules individually. It is important to research what is included or omitted, from the current FNP scope of practice in the state in which you plan to practice.<\/p>\n

FNPs typically carry out job duties<\/a> such as:<\/p>\n