NRNP 6568 Week 1 Discussion; Certification and Licensure - Practice Guidelines in the State of North Carolina

Practice Guidelines in the State of North Carolina In North Carolina (NC) Nurse Practitioners (NP) are dully regulated by the North Carolina Board of Nursing (NCBON) and the North Carolina Medical Board (NCMB). Therefore, a NP in NC is held accountable by both boards and must be supervised by a collaborating physician. Under law 21 NCAC 36. 0802 The scope of practice for a NP in NC is defined as promotion of health, prevention of illness and disability; diagnosing, treating and maintaining acute and chronic illnesses; guidance and counseling for both individuals and families, prescribing, administering and dispensing therapeutic measures, tests, procedures, and drugs; planning for situations beyond the nurse practitioner’s scope of practice and expertise by consulting with and referring to other health care providers as appropriate; and evaluating health outcomes (Logic, 2021). Process for Approval to Practice To practice as an NP in NC, one must first complete a Nurse Practitioner graduate level program, have an unencumbered license to practice as a registered nurse in NC or a compact state, and be certified as a nurse practitioner by a national credentialing body (Logic, 2021). After one submits the registration requirements the next step is to apply for approval to practice with documentation of a collaborative practice agreement with a primary supervising physician, the fee for this application is $100.00 (Logic, 2021). After submission, the application is then reviewed by the NCBON and NCMB. All drugs and devices that may be prescribed by the NP must be included in the collaborative practice agreement including controlled substances. The supervising physician may implement additional regulations for the NP above what the DEA registration states he or she is lawfully allowed to prescribe. If an NP needs to prescribe a medication or device that has not deemed approved by their supervising physician, the NP will then need to obtain written or verbal consent from the collaborating physician with a signature from each party. At which time the NP will be allowed to write the prescription; if more are needed the than the initial approved prescription, the practice agreement must be updated and re-submitted to both the NCBON as well as the NCMB (Logic, 2021). In addition to the prescribing regulations submitted on the practice agreement, no NP can prescribe medication for their own use, the supervising physician, a member of the NP’s immediate family including spouse, parent, child, sibling, parent-in-law, son or daughter-in-law, brother or sister-in-law, step-parent, step-child, or step-siblings. This rule also applies to any other person living in the same residence as the NP or anyone the NP is having a physical, emotional, or sexually intimate relationship with (Logic, 2021). In NC your approval by NCBON and NCMB includes prescriptive authority for legend drugs and controlled substance schedules II-V that are consistent with the scope of practice. To apply for DEA licensure, the NP must submit a form online to: https://apps.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/webforms2/spring/main?execution=e1s1 The form consists of personal and business information, activity, state license with a copy of physician collaboration agreement that