Update: NPs Now Have Full Practice Authority in a Majority of States. Is Urgent Care Ahead of the Game?

Just a week after we shared the news that New York had become the 25^th state to grant nurse practitioners full practice authority (FPA), Kansas has followed suit, tipping the scales to the majority of U.S. states now allowing NPs to deliver care without physician supervision. Proponents claim that broadening the types of healthcare providers authorized to provide care to patients independently also broadens access to healthcare—something that is badly needed in many communities across the country. Detractors of FPA for NPs argue that because NPs have fewer years of training before attaining clinician status, they are not as expert as physicians and patient safety and outcomes will suffer as a result. JUCM has covered one possible way to address that concern in an article called The Case for an Interprofessional Postgraduate NP/PA Fellowship in Urgent Care. Read it in our archive.