Where Can Nurse Practitioners Work Without Physician Supervision?

Since the inception of the first Nurse Practitioner education program in 1965, men and women in the profession have experienced great success and heated opposition. Physician organizations have openly opposed the use of Nurse Practitioners as primary care providers, claiming that educational gaps render them unsafe and unqualified to care for patients independently.

Even though the decades-old debate continues, research has proven time and again that Nurse Practitioners are indispensible primary care providers whose ability to treat a wide variety of conditions rivals that of physicians. Moreover, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 58 million Americans live in areas in which the supply of primary care physicians doesn't meet federal standards (the appropriate ratio of providers to patients in a given state). As hundreds of thousands of new patients gain access to medical care via the Affordable Care Act and one-third of primary care doctors retire over the next decade, many Nurse Practitioners are gaining independence and establishing autonomy as they provide medical care without the oversight or management of a physician.

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