There are a variety of requirements or restrictions states may impose on advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) who prescribe controlled substances. In your state (California), discuss the role of the APRN in administering and dispensing drugs under the federal drug classification and schedules. Discuss your state requirements and restrictions, and identify practice barriers to the nurse practitioner role including the administration of controlled substances.
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Write My Essay For MeAdvanced Practice Registered Nurses in California have a role in ordering, administering, interpreting diagnostic tests, dispensing, and prescribing medications including schedule II-V controlled substances. The nurse practitioners can prescribe medication including controlled substances in California. However, the APRN’s cannot prescribe medication without the supervision of a physician or a surgeon. This is a requirement pursuant to the provisions of the California Nursing Practice Act (NPA) (Phillips, 2016). Each physician can only supervise up to four drug prescribing APRNs. The collaborating physician and the APRN ought to be in possession of jointly-made written protocols that cover all the main components of practice.
The physical distance between the APRN and the physician supervising him/her is not covered by NPA. However, it requires that the supervisor should be within a geographical distance that will be easy for him/her to adequately supervise the APRN in performing the functions of the standardized procedures.
In California, APRNs do not have Full Practice Authority (FPA) (Phillips, 2016). As a result, they cannot work autonomously despite their level of education and credentials hence limiting their scope of practice. This has resulted in acute shortages of primary healthcare providers due to the few numbers of qualified physicians in the state.
Another legal restriction to APRN’s practice is the authority to pronounce death. In California, APRNs may pronounce the death of a person but are disallowed to append a signature on their death certificates. This is a role reserved for qualified physicians (Dower, 2013).
An APRN without a nurse furnishing number cannot furnish medication and devices for patients using a standardized procedure. This is conditional on the issuance of a furnishing number to the APRN by the BRN. This number must be present on all APRN prescriptions transmittal order forms (Dower, 2013).
References
Dower, C., Moore, J., & Langelier, M. (2013). It is time to restructure health professions scope-of-practice regulations to remove barriers to care. Health Affairs, 32(11), 1971-1976.
Phillips, S. J. (2016). 28th annual APRN legislative update: Advancements continue for APRN practice. The Nurse Practitioner, 41(1), 21-48.
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