Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
Key to U.S. Health Care
ANA believes strongly in the value of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. We presented APRNs as one of the keys to solving America’s health care crisis when we outlined the need for APRN autonomous care delivery in Nursing's Agenda for Health Care Reform. We have been working for you for years, and we continue to work for you today.
Protecting Your Scope of Practice
ANA is a founding member of the Coalition for Patients’ Rights. This group is fighting the AMA's recent Scope of Practice initiative, which is attempting to limit the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses and other licensed professionals. Read about this important issue in the July/August 2006 American Nurse (page 5)
Ensuring You Get Paid Directly
ANA worked hard to ensure that APRNs received direct reimbursement for your services from Medicaid and Medicare; and today we are working just as hard to see that coverage is expanded by Medicaid, so that more APRN services are recognized. Additional information is available on the Advanced Practice Medicaid Reimbursement page.
Protecting Your Rights at the State Level
ANA, working together with our Constituent Member (State) Associations, helped remove geographic and practice setting limitations for APRNs. We are still working state by state to ensure that state laws affecting Advanced Practice Registered Nurses are both fair and consistent across the country, and that your scope of practice is not unfairly limited. For more information go to the Government Affairs State page.
Proving Your Value
ANA ensured that nursing services, including thereby Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, are included in cost-benefits analyses by launching the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators. NDNQI concretely shows how nurses’ expertise and interventions count, by increasing the quality of patient care, leading to better patient outcomes, and saving money. More than 1000 hospitals have signed up to contribute data to NDNQI, and we continue to add to the list of nursing sensitive indicators.
Read about it in the Nov/Dec 2006 American Nurse
For more information go to the NDNQI section.
Education You Can Use
ANA’s publishing arm, Nursesbooks.org, has made sure that measurement criteria specific to Advanced Practice Registered Nurses is included in our foundational Standards of Practice books. We also print a number of other books specific to APRNs. See a list at: www.nursesbooks.org
ANA also recognizes that you need CE hours to maintain your certification and/or license. ANA members have access to free online CE. Login and select CE in the Members Only Section.
Saving You Money
ANA guarantees that our list of benefits available to you as a member includes a number of benefits particularly important to APRNs: a significant discount on ANCC certification exams, access to the risk management discount of 10% on the liability insurance so necessary to your practice, and discounts on books that relate specifically to APRNs, your practice and your career. Get more information on your membership benefits.