Developing a collaborative practice agreement for the primary care setting

One of the goals of joint or collaborative practice is to improve health care services. With quality assurance and quality improvement being integral parts of modern-day health care, nurse practitioners need a mechanism to define the standards by which they practice. Collaborative practice agreements document the nurse practitioner's scope of practice and educate physicians, administrators, managers, and legal counsel. The outline presented in this article guides primary care practitioners through the document construction and approval process.