Abstract
Nebraska is a largely rural state with many communities defined as medically underserved by primary care providers. In 2014, the state legislature voted to eliminate the requirement for an integrated practice agreement (IPA) between nurse practitioners (NPs) and physicians. This report describes changes in access to primary health care in rural and underserved areas of Nebraska after removal of the IPA barrier to practice. The report compares the number of primary care NPs working in medically underserved areas before and after the legislation that ended the required IPA. In addition, anecdotes will be provided of NP and patient experiences in rural, NP-owned practices in Nebraska after IPA requirements were eliminated.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 288-292 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2019 |
Keywords
- Collaborative agreement
- IPA
- Nurse practitioner
- Rural health care
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nursing(all)