Maryland offers its prospective Nurse Practitioners (NPs) one of the friendliest processes of certification and licensing in the world. To be certified, a nurse is required to graduate from a board-approved four-year nurse practitioner program and pass the NCLEX-RN that takes about six hours to complete. Then one should get employed, acquire two years of clinical experience in a specialty focus, then they can apply for the certification exam.
Licensing takes between three to four weeks depending on the seasonal demand. Maryland requires that all the interested candidates complete an electronic background check and fingerprints. There is a CHRC form that should be filled and its last page printed and taken to any of the approved sites. The CJIS number is a must for people residing outside Maryland (“Maryland APRN License”, 2021). To obtain it, they are required to email [email protected] to request their fingerprint card. They should then ink their prints on the cards and mail them back with the required fees. Nurses who completed their education outside the US are required to take an oral English test. The application for licensure can be done on the state’s official site. Some of the other requirements are a digital passport-style photo, the 12 digit number found beneath the barcode on the fingerprint card received an active license in a different state, and the stated fees. Those who studied outside the US also must undergo transcript evaluation.
To acquire a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) license, one begins by applying for Maryland State Controlled Dangerous Substance Registration (CDS) with the Office of Controlled Substance Administration (OCSA). They would be required to fill out an OCSA Researcher Questionnaire and a 3-year practitioner application form (University of Maryland, 2021). The application should be completed in its entirety, signed and dated, appropriate fee enclosed and mailed to ensure there are no delays in the application process.
Maryland is one of the states that allows its nurse practitioners to work independently with no physicians supervising them. The state acknowledges them as primary caregivers. Other than being free of the collaborative agreements, nurses have the freedom to open up their clinics. They are authorized to independently assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe Schedule II-V substances to their patients without supervision. However, the nurse practitioners are required to have a one-page agreement that substantiates that there is a physician readily available for consultation whenever the NP needs any kind of assistance. Also, to prescribe a controlled substance, the NP must have a Maryland Drug Control Number. Their licensure needs coursework in advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and physical assessment.
While the NPs are free from collaborative agreements with physicians, the state’s policies still limit the independent practice. For instance, Maryland has a restriction on autonomy in acute care settings. Also, there are third-party reimbursement practices, for example, reimbursing APRN care at a lower rate compared to physicians carrying out similar roles (Schirle et al., 2018). This was surprising because it should have been one of the first areas of focus when the state decided to do away with the need for physician cosignatures. If NPs and physicians can engage in similar roles, then both of them should have sufficient resources availed to them. After all, the state benefits from a less healthcare burden of which NPs are playing a major role in its realization. Fortunately, the nurse practitioner organizations in Maryland are working to eradicate such barriers. For example, the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland (NPAM) gathers arising issues among NPs and presents them to the local, state and federal government entities. They create awareness among other health professionals and the general public regarding NPs, which eventually promotes the quality of healthcare due to improved relationships.
In conclusion, NPs in Maryland work independently to deliver primary healthcare as long as they have acquired the appropriate skills and documentation. While NPs are equally capable, they ought to have a readily available physician for consultation. For one to be certified, they must have a clinical experience of about two years, while licensing takes about four weeks. Nurses working independently encounter challenges that reduce their productivity, but with the help of the NP organizations in Maryland, most of them are being addressed.
References
Maryland APRN License Requirements | How to become a Nurse Practitioner in Maryland – NursingLicensure.org. NursingLicensure – A more efficient way to find nursing license requirements in your state. (2021). Web.
Schirle, L., Norful, A., Rudner, N., & Poghosyan, L. (2018). Organizational facilitators and barriers to optimal APRN practice: An integrative review. Health Care Management Review, 45(4), 311-320. Web.
University of Maryland. (2021). DEA License Information | Division of Research. Web.