Date of Creation
4-1-2019
Degree Type
Departmental Honors Thesis - Restricted Access
First Advisor
Professor Monica Carney
Abstract
The current supply of primary care providers in the United States falls short in meeting demand, a trend that has been ongoing for decades, and will soon be exacerbated due to the aging population. Nurse practitioners can provide a sustainable solution to this problem, as they can perform many of the same tasks as their physician counterparts and offer their services in regions that commonly experience shortages of healthcare access. The passage of the Affordable Care Act put even more pressure on the primary care workforce, as millions of more people received healthcare access. Along with its passage was a push to both increase the supply of nurse practitioners as well as loosen the restrictions placed upon their ability to practice. However, because state governments control how much autonomy nurse practitioners are given, there is a large disparity between nurse practitioner authorities among states. This paper looks into the effect of varying degrees of regulations between states on the number of total nurse practitioners and nurse practitioner wages. While no significant effect was found on the number of nurse practitioners, a significant impact was found between looser regulations and increasing nurse practitioner wages.
Recommended Citation
Kozik, Isabelle, "Nurse Practitioners on the Rise: Do Looser State Regulations Affect Their Population and Wages?" (2019). Economics and Accounting Honors Theses. 19.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/econ_honor/19