Nurse Practitioners in Florida

¶ … qualify as a nurse practitioner in the state of Florida, one must have completed the required education and training for expert knowledge and skills. The process entails acquiring a bachelor's degree or a diploma and associate degree from accredited institution offering the nursing program. There is no licensing exam for one to become an NP as one has already done it after completing a diploma or undergraduate training. The state administers examinations to test the competencies of the NPs. However, they must acquire a license for prescribing drugs or medication. Individuals are eligible to enroll for a national certification exam in their area of specialization to be certified as an NP. The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and American Credentialing Center certify the NPs (Buppert, 2008).

The Nurse Practitioners of Florida have the freedom to prescribe drugs that include habit forming drugs, harmful to the patient or toxic, and have limited use as they require supervision from a practitioner. In addition, the nurse practitioner in Florida also prescribes pharmacological agents used for the management of the conditions of the patients alongside prescribing treatments, and non-pharmacologic therapies used in the hospital set up. Similarly, they enjoy other privileges such as prescribing laboratory and diagnostic procedures alongside interpreting laboratory and diagnostic results (Atlas, 2010). Florida uses collaborative agreements as its physician affiliation agreement. The collaborative agreement recognizes the need for the nurse practitioners work collectively with other health care providers in providing therapeutic care to their patients. The policy stipulates that all the nurse practitioners should consult with and/or refer to physicians within the hospital set up. The collaborative actions adopted aim at ensuring quality care provision to patients and involvement of consumers to ensure the realization of the health care objectives. Similarly, collaborative agreement entails delegation of prescriptive authority by the physician (s) to the Nurse Practitioner. In addition, the nurse practitioners practice independently within their area of scope to ensure their autonomy and responsibility at the workplace (Buppert, 2008).

Nurses in Florida are not allowed to prescribe narcotic drugs. The state considers a violation of the stated regulation for the nurse practitioner to prescribe narcotic medications for the patients. Alternatively, the nurse has provisions to perform activities such as monitoring of the response of the patient to drug therapies. The state allows them to perform additional activities as determined by the law in promoting the optimum recovery from a condition requiring narcotic medication. Proponents of the allowing of the nurse practitioners to prescribe narcotics argue that the authority will enhance access to the required health care services in the state. In addition, it will increase the availability of the health care services to the underserved populations in the state. However, nurse practitioners lack the adequate training required in the making of sound clinical diagnosis or development of proper treatment options for the controlled substances. They also argue that allowing them will increase the risks of drug abuse and diversification of drug prescription channels from the legally accepted distribution channels (Atlas, 2010).