Regulations in Nursing
The session examines different regulations and how they affect the performance of nurses and nursing labor market. The first paper, by Jeffrey Traczynski and Victoria Udalova, examines the impact of nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice regulations on the use of health care services and primary care-related outcomes. They exploit variation in state regulations regarding NP practice, and link these data to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to study rates of routine checkups and emergency department visits for ambulatory-care sensitive conditions, among other outcomes. The second paper, by Ulrike Muench, also considers NP scope of practice regulations. She focuses on regulations that affect the ability of NPs to prescribe medications, and examines whether these affect prescription drug utilization among Medicare beneficiaries. The third paper, by Christina DePasquale and Kevin Stange, focuses on licensing regulations in the registered nurse (RN) field. They examine the Nurse Licensure Compact, which is a multi-state program in which states recognize each other’s RN licenses. The Compact enables RNs to work across state lines more easily, because they do not have to obtain a separate license for each state. In theory, the Compact should make labor markets more competitive; they examine the impacts on wages and salaries. Together, these papers demonstrate that regulatory environments can have significant effects on labor market functioning and access to care.