Scope of Practice Research Moving to CSOR

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted an urgent need to identify the interactions between occupational licensing and scope of practice on access, cost, and quality of healthcare services to better understand healthcare in the United States. CSOR affiliates have been at the forefront of this research, analyzing everything from nurse practitioner licensing compacts to temporary expansions of prescriptive and practice authority. The Knee Center’s most recent Research Fellow, Alicia Plemmons, spent the pandemic encouraging these studies by developing new avenues for researchers to meet and share their work. Plemmons built the Scope of Practice and Medical Licensure Research Group in collaboration with the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas as an online hub of current research and a monthly online speaker series where researchers can showcase their upcoming studies.

Plemmons spent the last year working in partnership with the Institute for Humane Studies to expand the discussion of scope of practice and medical licensure and inspire new researchers entering the field. This partnership resulted in a papers workshop, an online conference, and three public panels. These panels included presentations on the labor market effects, health outcomes, and cost of care effects of scope of practice by CSOR Director, Edward Timmons, and CSOR Research Affiliate, Bobby Chung. The last event, a papers workshop organized by Plemmons in partnership with Mitch Mitchell, formerly of ACRE at UCA, will take place from July 29th-31st in Portland, OR. During this event, ten of the top medical licensing researchers will spend three days discussing data and upcoming research analyzing regulations affecting psychologists, nurse practitioners, optometrists, and dental hygienists.

We are happy to announce that beginning in the Fall of 2022, the Scope of Practice and Medical Licensure seminar series will be moving to the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation. Keep an eye out on our social media where we will be providing updates on the exciting research shared by our own CSOR affiliates and fellows!

In the meantime, click here to visit their external site!