Study: More Practices Employing Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants

About 35% of primary care practices and 28% of specialty practices employed at least one advanced practice clinician in 2016, meaning a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, according to a study reported today in JAMA Internal Medicine. That’s up from 28% of primary care practices and 23% of specialty practices in 2008, the study found. “Because the NP role was historically developed to focus on primary care and most advanced practice clinicians are NPs, one would expect that advanced practice clinicians would have a greater presence in primary care practices,” the authors note.