re: SB 435 would allow advanced practice nurses to not work under a physician

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I honestly do not see the big deal about this bill.

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Have you read it?

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I think this has the opportunity to increase the opportunities for people to access quality health care quickly in the city and in rural setting.

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This bill removes physician oversight of hospital and nursing-home employed nurse practitioners. How does that increase access to care? What nursing homes and hospitals are having shortages at this present time?

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I think Drs are afraid of this bill because they would lose power over the patient but they forget to realize it isn’t just their patient and several other qualified people are working within their education and scope to better the health of the individual.

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When talking about patients hospitalized and in nursing homes, you are talking about patients who are significantly more sick than the sniffles that walk through the door. Administrators who make the hires do not have any clinical skills. They see lower costs (to them, to the customer and insurance, the costs are the same (and by some studies, more due to ordering of unnecessary testing...while not well validated, it is also the pervasive anecdotal belief at this time)), cut corners, and patients in these settings are going to suffer.

What is really sad is that there is unfortunately no way to harp on that point without a physician sounding:
1) Financially insecure
2) Overbearing
3) Intellectually insecure


Further, when it comes to the standards people are held to, mid-level providers need to be just that- mid-level. If they want to practice independently, they need to be held to the standard of independent practitioners by the LSBME or new board designed to do just that- neither of which would be provided for by this bill. Otherwise, you allow for a second-tier of care to exist, and that is what the majority, including myself, would like to prevent from happening.