Scope of Practice for Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioners

Party A, a Psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) and Party B (collaborating physician) collectively presented as “Parties”, want to make a formal collaborative agreement. This collaborative agreement seeks to act as a legally binding document guiding the terms of the collaborative partnership. Party A is a licensed and registered professional nurse, while party B is a licensed and registered physician who has worked in the field for several years. The parties want to work together to achieve the following;

Representation and Authority

Scope of Practice

Any major decisions concerning the collaboration agreement have to be accepted by both parties. The PMHNP’s scope of practice is psychotherapy and medication management as their primary intervention (Wesemann, 2019). The PMHNP will treat and diagnose patients, prescribe medication, perform corrective or therapeutic measures, and perform other roles outlined in the college certificate. The PMHNP need expertise in performing psychotherapy and treating patients using psychotropic medications.

Type of Practice

The type of practice involves providing integrated medication management and psychotherapy. Other services include monitoring the patient’s mental health status, brief counselling, crisis intervention, referral and case management. The practice is located within a major hospital where patients with mental issues get referred for treatment. Emergency treatments are also provided by the PMHNP full-time to both in-patients and out-patients who need urgent care from a mental health professional.

Supervision and record review

Party B will supervise Party A and interact with each other via electrical access such as email, telephone, or on-site. Record review will be the role of a collaborating physician, which will be every two months to evaluate Party A. PMHPs who are employees of an agency have to get psychiatrist supervision as part of the agreement (Martin et al. 2020). Because of collaborative practice between care providers, physician supervision is needed to improve patients’ health outcomes.

Termination

Each party can choose to revoke this collaborative agreement after writing a notice up to 4 weeks before the termination date. If one party withdraws from the agreement, it means they have terminated their agreement unless a new agreement is made. Any remaining party can start a new agreement after ending the current agreement. The agreement will also be reviewed and revised annually by both parties.

Agreement

Both parties have read and agree to the terms.

Nurse Name:

License #: Signature and date:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Collaborating Physician Name: License #: Signature and date:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

References

Martin, B., Phoenix, B. J., & Chapman, S. A. (2020). How collaborative practice agreements impede the provision of vital behavioral health services. Nursing Outlook, 68(5), 581-590. Web.

Wesemann, D. (2019). Maximizing the Use of Psychotherapy With PMHNP:: A Call to Action for Nurse Leaders. Nurse Leader, 17(6), 537-541. Web.