Nurse Practitioner Care, Scope of Practice, and End-of-Life Outcomes for Nursing Home Residents with Dementia

Date: 05/10/2024
Source: Nurse Practitioner Care, Scope of Practice, and End-of-Life Outcomes for Nursing Home Residents with Dementia
Author(s): Cyrus M. Kosar, Bishnu B. Thapa, Ulrike Muench, Christopher Santostefano, Emily A. Gadbois, Hyesung Oh, Pedro L. Gozalo, Momotazur Rahman, and Elizabeth M. White

 

Is nurse practitioner (NP) care associated with end-of-life outcomes for nursing home residents with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD), and do these associations differ between states with full versus restrictive NP scope of practice regulations? The results of this cohort study including 334,618 US nursing home residents with ADRD indicated that decedents with greater NP involvement at end of life had fewer hospitalizations and higher hospice use. The adjusted differences in outcomes between decedents with extensive vs minimal NP care were larger in states with full scope of practice regulations than in states with restrictive regulations. Nursing home residents with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) often receive burdensome care at the end of life. Nurse practitioners (NPs) provide an increasing share of primary care in nursing homes, but how NP care is associated with end-of-life outcomes for this population is unknown. To examine the association of NP care with end-of-life outcomes for nursing home residents with ADRD and assess whether these associations differ according to state-level NP scope of practice regulations, this cohort study using fee-for-service Medicare claims included 334,618 US nursing home residents with ADRD who died between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2018. Data were analyzed from April 6, 2015, to December 31, 2018. The findings of this cohort study suggest that NPs appear to be important care providers during the end-of-life period for many nursing home residents with ADRD and that regulations governing NP scope of practice may have implications for end-of-life hospitalizations and hospice use in this population. These findings suggest that state regulations governing NP scope of practice may have implications for end-of-life hospitalizations and hospice use for nursing home residents with ADRD.