The healthcare costs are growing at unsustainable rate. This is the problem to say but this is a multi-faceted issue comprising unhealthy lifestyle, medical technology, rising hospital costs, fraud and waste and so on. In this case, nurse practitioners are increasingly becoming the primary health care providers. NP is advanced practice registered nurses who are qualified to treat wide range of health problems, diseases and conditions. To simply put; nurse practitioners are able to seamlessly blend their expertise in diagnosing and treating various health conditions.
The need of an hour – The primary care physician shortage is a serious growing problem and patients are being affected. The demand of the primary care is projected to rise in the next 5 years due to population overgrowth, expanded health insurance and aging. With the rising shortage of primary care physicians and studies repeatedly showing that primary care reduces cost and increases quality for consumers.
Reasons To Have Nurse Practitioners To Have As Primary HealthCare
Nurse practitioners can play a critical role in expanding primary care capacity. Nurse practitioners often called mid-level health care providers are able to extend some aspects of primary care, complementing the work of primary care physicians. Nurse practitioners are nurses with advanced clinical training. They need fewer years of training than physicians making them a more immediate support to a stretched primary care workforce. Furthermore; nurse practitioners can reduce cost because their average earnings are half those of primary care physicians.
The NPs are important for areas of the country that face severe primary care physician shortages - this shortage is particularly acute for rural areas and southern states where the patient-to-primary care physician ratio is higher and where fewer physicians are choosing to practice. Studies show that Nurses are more likely to practice in these underserved areas than primary care physicians, increasing access for Medicaid patients and the uninsured.
How do nurse practitioners save the healthcare industry money?
Nurse practitioners are qualified to perform many of the same procedures as a physician, including: delivering babies, writing prescriptions, ordering tests, and diagnosing illnesses. Some of the only procedures NPs cannot perform are complicated/high risk cases and surgeries, which will generally be referred to a physician specializing in that particular area.
However, enabling nurse practitioners to practice medicine to the full extent of their licenses will enable the healthcare industry to both meet the demands of a greater number of sick people and lower the cost of primary care for all people.
Quality Improvement
Expanding NP scope-of-practice strengthens primary care capacity. Nurse Practitioners increases consumer access to primary care while freeing up physicians to manage more complex patient cases. States can support consumer access to health care by passing legislation that eases restrictions on NP scope-of-practice.
Harnessing NPs can also help address a common barrier to care for the beneficiaries: the shortfall of primary care providers. Empowering Nurse Practitioners to diagnose and prescribe without physician oversight is one important tool in helping to ensure that there is an adequate primary care workforce to serve this new population, especially NPs are more likely than MDs to treat patients in settings where provider resources are scarce.
