Political Advocacy

It's the end of another busy day at the Morningside Clinic. Like most days, you've managed a full pediatric patient load with the help of only one RN, Pat Cecil. As one of the few primary care providers in this low-income, rural community, you feel good about the much needed care you are able to provide every day. Unfortunately, as a nurse practitioner, you are not authorized to write prescriptions for medications independently because of legislative restrictions in this state. The clinic physician, Dr. Phillips, is across town at another clinic every day except Thursday. So, when your patients need a prescription, they often need to wait or travel to pick it up. Having moved from a state where you had prescriptive authority, your frustration with the inconvenience this causes for you and your patients grows daily.

Your challenge in this learning activity is to create an action plan to amend the state’s Advanced Practice Rules and Regulations to allow nurse practitioners to write prescriptions without the direct supervision of a collaborating physician. It’s important for you to get a bill through the legislature as soon as possible to make it easier for the parents of your young patients to get their prescriptions filled.

Select each of the tabs above to work through this political advocacy case.

Primary care providers may include physicians, physician assistants, nurse practictioners, certified nurse midwives, or clinical nurse specialists. While this case study involves prescriptive authority legislation restrictions on nurse practitioners, similar limitations may exist for other providers.