The Impact of Nurse Practitioners in Low-Income Heath Settings

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Primary care practices that employ nurse practitioners (NPs) are more likely to serve low-income communities than practices with no NPs on staff, according to researchers from the Columbia University School of Nursing.

Dr. Monica O’Reilly-Jacob, assistant professor and study leader, along with her colleagues looked at 79,743 primary care practices across the United States.

Of these practices, 53.4% employed NPs in 2023, a large jump from 21% in 2012.

Let’s go beyond the surface of these results and explore how it impacts others.

The Importance of Nurse Practitioners (NPs)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that as of May 2023, 280,140 organizations employed nurse practitioners (NPs) nationally.

According to the researchers, practices with NPs were more likely to be based in low-income (23.3% vs. 17.2%) and rural (11.9% vs. 5.5%) areas.

Similarly, communities where primary care practices employed NPs had more people living below the poverty level (14.4% vs. 12.8%) and more people without high school 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-resource] communities,” according to O’Reilly-Jacob and her colleagues.

It’s evident that NPs are crucial when it comes to patient care for many.

“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,” according to O’Reilly-Jacob.

Looking Toward the Future

While access to care has improved, benefiting many, there are still profound gaps in health outcomes, quality of care, and essential services for people in low-income communities, according to a 2024 United Way blog.

This drives home the point of how essential NPs are for providing care.

Researchers suggest that policies should attract NPs to low-income areas and retain them.

“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,” according to the researchers. “Such steps would expand the capacity of the primary care system to better meet demand in communities where it is needed most.”

Examining the Health of Your Community

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