National Research Agenda Funds Two Studies on Nurses' Scope of Practice

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced the recipients of two new grant awards totaling nearly $500,000 from its Future of Nursing National Research Agenda.The two newly-funded studies will examine the regulations, policies, and practices that affect nurses’ ability to practice to the full extent of their education and training.

RWJF created the Future of Nursing National Research Agenda in 2011 to support research that would inform implementation of the recommendations in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) groundbreaking report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. The project is coordinated by RWJF’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) and these new grants bring the total number of projects funded through this initiative to seven.

The newly funded studies are being conducted by researchers at the University of Florida and the University of California.

A research team at the University of Florida will examine the impact of state regulations and other barriers on advanced practice registered nurses’ (APRNs) practice, particularly in rural and other underserved areas.

The University of California, San Francisco research team will examine the structural, practice, and policy opportunities and barriers that affect psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners’ ability to most effectively use their skills and expertise in public mental health settings.

“The studies being funded through the National Research Agenda are addressing some of the key contemporary issues in nursing,” said Mary Naylor, PhD, FAAN, RN, Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and co-director of the INQRI program. “The findings will help us build a base of evidence to support policies and practices that will not only advance nursing but also improve the quality of health care and increase access to health care.”

The other five studies, funded earlier through the initiative, address:

• the impact of emerging models of primary care for future primary care workforce needs; 
• the impact of the provision of the Prescription for Pennsylvania law that removed practice barriers for APRNs; 
• the effect of state regulations on APRN and physician teamwork, collaboration, and patient outcomes; 
• the impact of loosening state restrictions on scope of practice for nurse practitioners on cost, quality, access to care, and the size of the nurse practitioner workforce; and 
• the return on investment for nurse residency programs, and the entities to which returns accrue.