Quality of Patient Care by Nurse Practitioners

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with advanced education, either a masters or doctoral degree, as well as extensive clinical experience in a variety of settings. The requirements for the quality of patient care by nurse practitioners follow that of registered nurses with additional standards for the extra responsibilities they carry.

Extra Responsibilities

• Nurse practitioners have responsibilities for quality care during additional controlled health acts. These include initiating care of a wound below the dermis, putting an instrument, hand or finger into an opening of the body and communicating a diagnosis.

Quality of Care Standards

• The nursing code of ethics and the standards of care detail the quality of care required for all patients. The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners has published detailed additional quality standards covering the practice of the nurse practitioner.

Reviews of Nurse Practitioner Quality of Care

• Starting with a 1979 review in "Annals of Internal Medicine," research papers and evaluations have constantly shown that nurse practitioners provide office-based care that is indistinguishable from physician care. Indeed, a 10-year review of nurse practitioners published in the "British Medical Journal" in 2002 concluded that "Patients are more satisfied with care from a nurse practitioner than from a doctor, with no difference in health outcomes."