Morgan W A
Department of Family Practice, University of California, Davis.
Nurse Pract. 1993 Feb;18(2):65-6, 69-70, 73-4.
Knowing the number of nurse practitioners, both at the state and national levels, is important to those dealing with health care policy and education. To determine these numbers, we telephoned all state boards of nursing, and asked whether they distinguished nurse practitioners from other registered nurses and what the respective numbers were. Data were available from a time period beginning in March 1992 and ending in September 1992. Thirty-four states, representing 70.6 percent of all registered nurses, now distinguish nurse practitioners from other nurses. In these states, 1.35 percent of all registered nurses are nurse practitioners. Projecting this percentage to the states that do not make the distinction yields a total of 33,834 nurse practitioners in the United States. Using neighboring states rather than the national average as a predictor for no-data states leads to a national total estimate of 31,294. When corrected for multistate licensure, the final estimated number is 27,226. This estimating method should yield even more accurate data in the future as more states certify and list their nurse practitioners. This method enumerates nurse practitioners as defined by the various states, which have highly variable definitions of what a nurse practitioner is. However, the variability in legal definition is decreasing as more states require national certification.
了解州和国家层面执业护士的数量，对于那些从事医疗保健政策和教育工作的人来说很重要。为了确定这些数字，我们致电了所有州护士委员会，询问他们是否将执业护士与其他注册护士区分开来，以及各自的数量是多少。数据可得时间段为1992年3月至1992年9月。代表所有注册护士70.6%的34个州，现在将执业护士与其他护士区分开来。在这些州，所有注册护士中有1.35%是执业护士。将这个百分比推算到未作区分的州，得出美国执业护士总数为33,834名。使用相邻州而非全国平均水平作为无数据州的预测指标，得出全国总数估计为31,294名。在对多州执照进行校正后，最终估计数字为27,226名。随着越来越多的州对其执业护士进行认证和列出，这种估计方法在未来应该会产生更准确的数据。这种方法按各州定义来统计执业护士，而各州对执业护士的定义差异很大。然而，随着越来越多的州要求全国认证，法律定义的差异正在减小。
