Nurse Practitioner Scope of Practice and Patient Harm: Evidence from Medical Malpractice Cases and Adverse Action Reports

Sara Markowitz and Andrew J.D. Smith

No 31109, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Many states have recently changed their scope of practice laws and granted full practice authority to nurse practitioners, allowing them to practice without oversight from physicians. Physician groups have argued against this change, citing patient safety concerns. In this paper, we use a ratio-in-ratio approach to evaluate whether the transition to full practice authority results in harm to patients as proxied by rates of malpractice payouts and adverse action reports against nurse practitioners. We find no evidence of such harm, and instead find that physicians may benefit from the law change in terms of reduced malpractice payouts against them.

JEL-codes: I1 K1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-04
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Published as Sara Markowitz & Andrew J. D. Smith, 2024. "Nurse practitioner scope of practice and patient harm: Evidence from medical malpractice payouts and adverse action reports," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol 43(2), pages 420-445.

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