The United States’ health policies are unique and developed to provide the nation with accessible and optimally effective care. The option to establish state regulations also benefits the local citizens and sets the standards for practitioners’ and physicians’ education and career. Although providing healthcare administration authority for entities is relatively uncommon, regulations passed by local legislators are similar to European countries. For instance, in the Netherlands, the law allows practitioners to advise medication the patients after completing specific pharmacology programs and practicum hours (Maier, 2019). This paper aims to compare the Dutch and American prescriptive authority for nurses and identify the role of international organizations in developing policies to regulate healthcare.
Prescriptive authority for nursing professionals is widely discussed in the United States because of its benefits and disadvantages for patient outcomes. While most states admit that timely medication advice makes healthcare services more efficient, there are several entities where drug abuse is perceived as connected to the practitioners’ rights to distribute substances (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2020). However, the prescriptive authority is developing and expanding in most states, and the policies around it are similar to European. Indeed, nursing practitioners from countries such as the Netherlands are required to receive licensing based on specific educational and practical courses to get the right medication advice.
The Dutch policy that regulates prescriptive nursing authority is universal for the entire country in contrast to the American state-based regulatory power; however, these conditions are applicable to countries’ political systems in general. In the Netherlands, a specialist can prescribe any medication within their competency after receiving at least a Master’s degree in nursing and completing the additional pharmacology curriculum (De Bruijn-Geraets et al., 2018). Similarly, in American states with independent practice, a professional must graduate from certified educational courses to get the prescriptive authority. The main Dutch policy that regulates nursing is the Individual Health Care Professions Act (BIG), and all decision-making regarding practicing, licensing, and education is based on its statements (De Bruijn-Geraets et al., 2018). In contrast, in the United States, various legislations and boards, such as local Nursing Practice Acts and boards, exist to administrate different aspects of the profession (Germack, 2021). The comparison revealed that the Netherlands has a centralized and universal healthcare system regulation, and analyzing its efficiency is insightful for developing strategies for enforcing American states’ local policymaking.
International unions, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), are the driving power of policymaking for countries’ healthcare systems. Indeed, WHO unites scientists and health professionals from diverse cultures to monitor the related industries’ performance and address challenges (Maier, 2019). The brightest example of WHO’s impact on developing policy is the establishment of regulations for fighting the COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, the organization set the standards of safety and prevention measures, and governments worldwide used them to pass the laws for healthcare systems’ regulations updates and adjust the professionals’ responsibilities and activities. Although WHO’s guidelines have an advisory authority, healthcare organizations and practitioners can utilize them to increase the services’ quality and include them in the policies.
Healthcare systems and the nursing profession are administrated differently in the United States and European countries, yet the Netherlands’ example reveals many similarities in the policies. Practitioners’ prescriptive authority is complete for the Dutch specialists, and American states’ local regulations include the corresponding requirements. International organizations, such as WHO, are valuable for healthcare policymaking because they provide evidence-based and objective solutions for countries to improve people’s well-being worldwide.