Healthcare Legislation and Policies and Procedures

Impact of Legislation on Nurse Practitioners
Policies and procedures are important parts of a healthcare organization as they relate to operations and delivery of care services. Healthcare policies and procedures are established to help standardize daily operational activities. In addition to providing clarity on healthcare issues and activities, policies and procedures also offer guidance on regulatory requirements and legal liabilities. This implies that there is a strong link between healthcare legislation and policies and procedures. Healthcare legislation is linked to policies and procedures as it helps define health and safety issues, regulatory requirements, and legal liabilities in care delivery. When developing their policies and procedures, healthcare organizations use healthcare legislation as the framework for this process. For example, healthcare interventions that seek to improve patient safety are based on policies and procedures, which are aligned with healthcare legislation. According to Kachalia et al. (2016), legal and policy-based interventions are the premise for many of the initiatives adopted to help improve patient safety.
Since healthcare legislation shapes policies and procedures, it also impacts the various professionals in this field including nurse practitioners. Legislation impacts nurse practitioners in a variety of ways including determining the scope of practice. Healthcare legislation influences nurse practitioners’ role in the provision of primary care services by determining the scope of practice (Ortiz et al., 2018). An example of a scenario in my clinical setting that shows the impact of legislation on nurse practitioners relates to the delivery of primary care services to rural populations. In this scenario, the nurse practitioner evaluated a patient who visited the clinic, carried out diagnostic tests, and diagnosed the patient’s condition. However, the nurse practitioner could not initiate treatment without the supervision of a physician. This was primarily because state legislation requires these practitioners to collaborate with or work under the supervision of a physician when providing care.
References
Kachalia, A., Mello, M.M., Nallamothu, B.K. & Studdert, D.M. (2016, February 16). Legal and Policy Interventions to Improve Patient Safety. Circulation, 133(7), 661-671. Retrieved from https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/circulationaha.115.015880
Ortiz, J., Hogler, R., Bushy, A., Lin, Y., Khanijahani, A. & Bitney, A. (2018, June). Impact of Nurse Practitioner Practice Regulations on Rural Population Health Outcomes. Healthcare, 6(2), 65. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6023304/