Scope of Practice Toolkit

The Scope of Practice Toolkit addresses key concepts regarding modifying the scope of practice of various healthcare and other practitioners in public health emergency response activities. The toolkit component documents are designed to assist in education, training, and planning activities to prepare for emergencies, as well as to serve as a quick reference resource during an emergency response to an event. The Scope of Practice Toolkit is one of six toolkits in ASTHO’s Legal Preparedness Series.

Intended Audiences

These documents are specifically designed to address the different needs of discrete audiences within a state health agency:

• State health officers, agency directors, or other senior governmental officials may find the executive overviews and fact sheets of particular interest.
• Preparedness directors and other programmatic staff will find the fact sheets, issue briefs, state analysis guides, and resource materials useful in understanding and gaining more in-depth knowledge about particular concepts and legal issues.
• Legal counsel will find the fact sheets about particular federal laws and regulations, issue briefs, state analysis guides, and citations within the resource materials a good basis from which to conduct additional research and analyze their particular state’s authorities on these issues.

Scope of Practice Toolkit Contents

All documents are listed alphabetically within each document category  

Executive Overviews
One-page snapshots of key concepts and issues

• Scope of Practice Key Issues and Concepts

Fact Sheets
Short documents addressing fundamental issues or legal authorities

• Modified Scope of Practice Used by States in the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic
• Scope of Practice Issues in Public Health Emergencies
• Understanding Licensing, Credentialing, Certification, and Privileging

Issue Briefs
In-depth information and analyses of fundamental issues

• No issue briefs in the toolkit currently

State Analysis Guides
Aids to assist states in identifying and analyzing their own statutes, regulations, and policies

• Scope of Practice Issues (automatic Word document download)