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Major care practices that make use of nurse practitioners (NPs) usually tend to serve socioeconomically deprived communities than practices with no NPs on workers, Columbia College College of Nursing researchers report in JAMA Community Open. Assistant Professor Monica O’Reilly-Jacob, Ph.D., led the research, revealed on-line February 28, 2025.
To higher perceive the distribution of NPs—who’re more and more essential to bettering entry to major care—O’Reilly-Jacob and her colleagues checked out 79,743 major care practices throughout the U.S., 53.4% of which employed NPs in 2023. The authors be aware that it is a huge leap from 2012, when 21% of major care practices employed NPs.
Practices with NPs have been extra more likely to be based mostly in low-income (23.3% vs. 17.2%) and rural (11.9% vs. 5.5%) areas, the researchers discovered. Communities the place major care practices employed NPs had extra folks residing beneath the poverty stage (14.4% vs. 12.8%) and extra folks with out highschool diplomas (19.8% vs. 18.5%).
“This study demonstrates that NPs are increasingly utilized for primary care delivery across the country, and especially within low-socioeconomic communities,” O’Reilly-Jacob and her colleagues be aware. “This is important as fewer medical residents are choosing to practice primary care, resulting in an estimated shortfall of 20,200-40,400 primary care physicians by 2036.”
Insurance policies are additionally wanted to convey NPs to underserved areas, and retain them, the researchers add, “such as strengthening federal and state loan repayment programs, establishing pay parity in state Medicaid programs, and ensuring primary care provider designation for NPs across payers. Such steps would expand the capacity of the primary care system to better meet demand in communities where it is needed most.”
Extra data:
Monica O’Reilly-Jacob et al, Socioeconomic Traits of Communities With Major Care Practices With Nurse Practitioners, JAMA Community Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.62360
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Columbia College Irving Medical Heart
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Nurse practitioners key to rising well being care entry in much less advantaged areas, research exhibits (2025, February 28)
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