Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/821337
85 Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice Laws in All 50 States & DC By Anuja Vaidya A s of 2016, there were more than 222,000 nurse practitioners licensed in the United States, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners' National Nurse Practitioner Database. Here are scope of practice laws for NPs in the country, as of July 24, 2015, from Kaiser State Health Facts. irty-two states and the District of Columbia al- low NPs to provide care without physician involvement and 18 states do not. NPs may diagnose/treat pa- tients without physician in- volvement 1. Alaska 2. Arizona 3. Arkansas 4. Colorado 5. Connecticut 6. District of Columbia 7. Hawaii 8. Idaho 9. Iowa 10. Kentucky 11. Maine 12. Maryland 13. Massachusetts 14. Michigan 15. Minnesota 16. Montana 17. Nebraska 18. Nevada 19. New Hampshire 20. New Jersey 21. New Mexico 22. New York 23. North Dakota 24. Oklahoma 25. Oregon 26. Rhode Island 27. Tennessee 28. Utah 29. Vermont 30. Washington 31. West Virginia 32. Wisconsin 33. Wyoming NPs may not diagnose/treat patients without the following types of physician involvement Collaborative agreement — re- quires NPs and physicians estab- lish a collaborative agreement before NPs can diagnose and treat patients 34. Alabama 35. Illinois 36. Indiana 37. Louisiana 38. Mississippi 39. Missouri 40. Ohio 41. Pennsylvania 42. South Dakota 43. Virginia Physician supervision — requires physicians supervise NPs during diagnosis and treatment 44. California 45. Delaware 46. Florida 47. Georgia 48. Kansas 49. North Carolina 50. South Carolina 51. Texas n Hospitals 'Rushing' to Obtain Accelerated Visas for Foreign Medical Students By Alyssa Rege S ome of the 3,814 non-U.S. citizens who graduated from foreign medical schools and were accepted into U.S. residency programs may face delays start- ing their rotations after the suspension of a government program allowing U.S. employers the opportunity to fast-track visa applications took effect April 3, according to STAT. Under the "premium processing" program, employers could request the government fast-track a H-1B visa ap- plication in 15 days for a fee of $1,225 per applicant. Tra- ditional visa evaluations may take more than six months, on average, to complete. U.S. Citizenship and Immi- gration Services reportedly suspended the program to allow USCIS staff to evaluate applications placed on backlog, since premium processing applications are evaluated first, according to the report. While the agency initially announced the suspension of the program in March, physicians seeking residency op- portunities in the U.S. did not find out whether they had been placed at a U.S. hospital until "Match Day" March 17, leaving hospitals and health systems in the lurch to fast-track the applications of incoming residents before the April 3 deadline. International medical residents may also apply for a J-1 visa, which is used for those entering the U.S. for "cultur- al or educational exchange opportunities," according to the report. However, the J-1 visa requires individuals to return to their home country for at least two years after completing their training. The suspension comes on the heels of three executive orders President Donald Trump signed in January that imposed a temporary travel ban on individuals from a handful of Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen. The executives orders have been blocked by a number of federal judges. Some medical professionals worry the USCIS's suspen- sion of the expedited visa program may exacerbate staffing issues at hospitals across the country. "There are a lot of areas in the U.S. where [hospitals and health systems] can't find qualified physicians to provide care," Alex Jahangir, MD, medical director of the Nash- ville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Center for Trauma, Burn and Emergency Surgery, told Becker's Hospital Review. "Rural environments and some underserved communi- ties [are struggling] to find representation in all special- ties, and now you're getting rid of a potential pipeline of very smart foreign medical graduates that have his- torically been taking those underserved areas because that's the method by which they can get a green card." n