Position Statement: Full Practice Authority for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Is Necessary to Transform Primary Care

Lack of full practice authority (FPA) for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) is a barrier to the provision of efficient, cost-effective, high-quality, and comprehensive health care services for some of our most vulnerable citizens ( Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2014 , Buerhaus et al., 2015 , Pohl et al., 2010a , Seibert et al., 2004 ). APRNs have the education, knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to provide basic and comprehensive primary care services; they are a ready workforce, ideally positioned to improve access to care, contribute to health disparities reduction efforts, and lower the cost of providing such care ( National Center for Workforce Analysis 2013 , Perloff et al., 2016 ). However, barriers at the state and national levels continue to prevent these highly qualified health care providers from practicing to the full extent to which their education and training have prepared them. It is the position of the American Academy of Nursing (academy) that FPA of APRNs is essential to achieving health equity