Maryland State Practice Laws

Maryland State Practice Laws Case Study
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State practice act significantly contributes to formulating the Nurse Practitioners (NP) scope of practice and directly affect patient care's effectiveness and quality. This paper examines nurse practice laws in Maryland and their implications on patient care for patients suffering from co-morbid conditions. The report mainly focuses on how Maryland's nurse practice act impacts the management of a 35-year-old African American male with increased drinking, sleep disturbances, anxiety symptoms, and depression history.
Introduction to Maryland NP Practice
Maryland has incorporated an inclusive and progressing approach to NPs' practice with the state's healthcare system. The state acknowledges the fundamental role played by NPs in delivering optimal patient-centered care and enhancing healthcare service accessibility. However, the NP practice in Maryland is guided by well-structured frameworks and laws that enable NPs to practice independently in their specialization areas while coordinating and collaborating with other healthcare stakeholders. NPs in Maryland can examine, diagnose, offer treatment, and manage patients. Moreover, they can conduct physical examinations, perform and interpret tests, decide on management plans, and prescribe medications. Such autonomy enables NPs to contribute as Primary Care Providers (PCPs), addressing diverse healthcare needs at personal and family levels (Buppert, 2020).
However, NP practice in Maryland involves coordination and collaboration among healthcare stakeholders. NPs have collaborative agreements with physicians in efforts to sustain their prescriptive prerogative. Such a collaborative model ensures NPs can access physician referrals, expertise, and consultation, thus ensuring patient care safety and quality. Moreover, it is a requirement for NPs to attain an accredited graduate-level nursing course before practice and get a national certification concerning their area of specialization. Also, Maryland allows NPs to work in different settings like hospitals, community healthcare centers, primary care clinics, and long-term patient care centers. Such flexibility in NP practice settings enables NPs to attend to underserved communities or populations with challenges accessing care services. To address this need, Maryland has achieved a significant milestone of having more NPs practicing listening to patients (Bae et al., 2022).
Maryland NP Practice Laws Impact on Patient Care
The nurse practice act guides the activities of NPs in Maryland by laying the basis via which they can practice, including illustrating their licensure requirements, roles, and responsibilities. NPs should extensively comprehend the provisions and implications of the nurse practice act to ensure secure, comprehensive, and patient-oriented care. Maryland recognizes NPs as independent and competent healthcare providers with the mandate of examining, diagnosing, treating, and managing patients in their specialty areas (Maryland.gov, 2018). Such recognition enhances NPs to offer diverse healthcare services such as physical examinations, medication prescription, order and interpretation of diagnostic tests, and initiation and management of treatment plans. By rendering such autonomy to the NPs, the practice act charges them with the role and responsibility of acting as the sole primary care providers, thus ensuring optimal healthcare delivery to the patients across their lifespan. In addition, Maryland has established a Prescription Drug Monitoring program (PDMP) such that NPs and physicians get unsolicited reporting notifications (URNs) in cases of potential patient behavior concerns (Amin-Esmaeili et al., 2022). This constitutes a significant initiative in ensuring NPs in Maryland practice to their full authority and competency level (Kleinpell et al., 2023).
In addition, although the NPs have the authority to practice independently, Maryland's practice act requires them to collaborate with physicians and other stakeholders by a collaborative agreement. Such collaboration allows NPs to access a supervising physician's consultation, referral, and expertise anytime. The collaboration agreement enhances ongoing coordination, communication, and support among physicians and NPs, thus improving healthcare safety and quality. In Maryland, the collaboration involves such provisions as consultation guidelines, chart review, and regular meetings (Bae et al., 2022). Such a collaborative model promotes an interprofessional patient care approach, enabling NPs to incorporate physicians' specialized experience and expertise while maintaining their daily practice autonomy. The various models of care incorporating NPs entail collaboration with physicians (McGilton et al., 2022). Such a collaborative framework underpins the team and maximizes patient results by extensively balancing physicians' and NPs' knowledge.
The Maryland nurse practice act also specifies the requirements for NPs' licensure and educational attainment. The law provides that a nurse should go through an accredited graduate-level nursing course and attain a relevant national certification concerning their specialty to obtain an NP license (Maryland.gov, 2018). This provision ensures NPs acquire the skills, knowledge, and competence needed for optimal patient care. Moreover, it stresses the significance of ongoing professional advancement, progressive education, and compliance with ethical principles to keep licensure and provide updated evidence...