Ask the Board of Nursing: Special Edition

There were multiple social media posts regarding independent practice, QA plans, and collaborative agreements.  It is important to ANPA that nurse practitioners understand the new removal of collaborative practice rules, so we reached out to the BON for their answer. We are sharing this member only benefit for all Arkansas NPs. 

“The reason the CPA/QA plan would need to be submitted to ASBN is because the employer is going to want the approval letter. In order to get the approval letter, you would have to submit the CPA/QA plan for review through the Nurse Portal. If they don’t want the letter, then don’t worry about submitting it to us. Again, we don’t get involved with employer issues and facilities can choose to have policies in place that are more strict than the law. They just can’t be less strict.
 
The APRNs at the individual facilities can educate their administration that they no longer need a collaborative practice agreement once they have been granted a certificate of full independent practice. You can submit a copy of your full independent practice approval letter and certificate in place of the CPA approval letter if they are insisting they need something to include in your credentialing packet.
 
Full independent practice is still relatively new to the state and it will take education by practicing APRNs, ANPA reps, and myself to raise awareness for the 500+ APRNs who currently hold full independent practice and the ones yet to apply.”

Shannon McKinney, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, RNC-OB

Assistant Director for Advanced Practice

Arkansas State Board of Nursing

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