With the health care industry facing provider shortages amid a growing demand for quality care, a new study from researchers at FAU highlights how temporary expansions in nurse practitioner (NP) autonomy during the COVID-19 pandemic helped alleviate provider shortages.

With the health care industry facing provider shortages amid a growing demand for quality care, a new study from researchers at Florida Atlantic University highlights how temporary expansions in nurse practitioner (NP) autonomy during the COVID-19 pandemic helped alleviate provider shortages.

While NPs have fought for years to have the legal right to work autonomously, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a turning point to show the need for NPs to provide quality primary care.

“For better or worse, COVID blew the door open by showing how trusted and essential nurse practitioners are,” said study co-author Scott Feyereisen, Ph.D., associate professor of health care administration in FAU’s College of Business. “Many states with higher COVID caseloads started to rely more on nurse practitioners to help address the fallout from these rapidly increasing caseloads.”

Researchers examined the legal and sociological components surrounding NP professionalization, or the ability for NPs to prescribe medication and manage patient care independently during the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the historical limitations NPs have faced on the scope of their practice.

The study found 22 states in the United States gave temporary autonomy to NPs during the COVID-19 pandemic, with states facing higher caseloads more likely to expand their authority. While many of these emergency measures have since expired, the pandemic created a natural experiment that underscores the value of granting NPs full practice authority, not just in emergencies, but as a permanent solution to provider shortages.

“After emergency orders were rolled back, the question remains, ‘Why were nurse practitioners trusted during COVID but not now?’” Feyereisen said. “Historically, there is a lot of improvement in outcomes and quality of care when nurse practitioners have no restrictions and can work with full authority.”

The study, “Covid-19 and nurse practitioner autonomy: a quantitative analysis and analytic narrative of nurse practitioner professionalization amid physical dominance,” was published in Health Sociology Review and co-authored by Clayton D. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor at Iowa State University; William R. McConnell, Ph.D., associate professor in FAU’s Department of Sociology; and Neeraj Puro, Ph.D., associate professor in FAU’s College of Business.

-FAU-