Last year, Family Practice and Counseling Services Network hired a psychiatric nurse practitioner to assist with the mental health needs of a “medically underserved” clientele.
But CEO Emily Nichols said it would be nearly six months before they saw a single patient at the Philadelphia Federally Qualified Health Center, since Pennsylvania requires nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice underneath a physician.
“And that’s just one psych NP. We could hire four more for the need we see, but we don’t have the resources and we don’t have the collaborating physicians,” Nichols told the Capital-Star. “And we have to pay for (collaborating physicians). We’re a community health center; we’re operating on a pretty thin margin.”
Pennsylvania is what’s known as a “reduced practice state,” meaning that Certified Registered Nurse Practitioners must have a written collaborative agreement with a licensed physician to work. But attempts to advance legislation changing that rule have repeatedly failed, despite broad, bipartisan support…