IN A VARIETY OF SETTINGS

Providing quality, affordable health carE​ ​​

advanceD practice registereD nurseS

Ohio APRNs

Courtesy of the Citizen Advocacy Center (CAC)

Courtesy of the National Conference of State Legislatures and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials 

Courtesy of the Ohio Board of Nursing

Learn more about APRN scope of practice:

  • Scope of practice is defined under the Ohio Nurse Practice Act and administrative rules. It consists of the boundaries within which a  qualified practitioner with substantial and appropriate training, knowledge, and experience may practice in a field of advanced practice nursing. Such practice is also governed by requirements for continuing education and professional accountability.


  • Changes in scope of practice are inherent in our current health care system as it is necessarily evolving. These changes relate to advances in technology, environmental and societal factors (such as Ohio's aging workforce and shortage of health care providers), decreasing health care dollars, and in evidence-based health care procedures, techniques, and other practices.   


  • Health care practice laws and rules need to evolve as health care demands and capabilities change. Sometimes such modifications of practice acts are just the formalization of changes already occurring in education or practice within a profession.


  • Proposed changes in the scopes of practice that are supported by one profession but opposed by other professions may be perceived by legislators and the public as “turf battles."  These turf battles are often costly and time consuming for the regulatory bodies, professions, and legislators involved.


  • The history of professional licensure must be taken into account if one is to understand the current regulatory system governing scope of practice. Physicians were the first health care professionals to obtain legislative recognition and protection of their practice. The practice of medicine was defined in broad and undifferentiated terms to include all aspects of individuals’ care. Therefore, when other health care professions sought legislative recognition, they were seen as claiming the ability to do tasks which were already included in the universal and implicitly exclusive authority of medicine. This dynamic has fostered views about scope of practice that are conceptually faulty and potentially damaging (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2012).

​​

  • Scope of practice reform is supported by many organizations, such as:
    • The CATO Institute
    • The Brookings Institution
    • The Center for American Progress
    • The Bipartisan Policy Center

Scope of practice

APRNs should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training

ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE (APRN)