Question

What are the three most important current trends or problems for an FNP and what is its impact on patient outcomes?

Answer 1

The most important current trends or problems for an FNP include; licensure and practice laws for NPs vary per state, and this creates a barrier to NPs practicing to the fullest extent. The approach of the physician professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, according to whom; physicians have longer, better and more rigorous training than NPs, thus they consider nurse practitioners incapable of providing quality, safe care at the same level as physicians. Restrictive scope-of-practice has led to stricter payer policies limiting the ability of the NPs to practice independently. This has led to a negative impact on patient outcomes as the work of NPs who are very essential to healthcare have suffered.