Practice patterns of advanced practice psychiatric nurses

BACKGROUND: Research about the nature and scope of advanced psychiatric nurse prac-tice is critical to validating advanced practice and further developing the role of the advanced practice nurse. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics and the practice and prescriptive patterns of advanced practice psychiatric nurses (APPNs). Research questions included: (a) What are the characteristics of APPNs? (b) What are the prac-tice patterns of APPNs? (c) What are the prescribing patterns of APPNs? (d) Do APPNs with prescriptive authority dependent on physicians differ in prescribing patterns from those APPNs with prescriptive authority independent of physicians? (e) Are APPNs with prescriptive authority dependent on physicians in the form of a protocol more likely to practice in urban areas than in rural areas? STUDY DESIGN: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 500 APPNs selected from the approximately 800 names included in the American Nurses Credentialing Center directory. RESULTS: Nurses in this sample were most likely to be older (mean age 50 years) wome