Misalignment of specialty nurse practitioners and the Consensus Model

Nurse practitioner (NP) employment in specialty practice areas, such as subspecialty ambulatory practices and inpatient units is growing substantially. The Consensus Model provides guidelines to help states aligning NP education and certification with specialty practice area. Despite expansion of the Consensus Model, significant misalignment exists between specialty NPs' education, certification, and practice location. Therefore, further implementation of the Consensus Model across states could have significant impact on health systems and NPs working in specialty settings. More than 10 years after its introduction, it is time to evaluate the policy and practice implications of the Consensus Model. Important next steps include examination of the impact of the Consensus Model and how to help health systems with alignment when and if the Model is more widely implemented.