Legislative Updates & White House Petition to remove restrictions on APN

Texas Nurse Practitioners – Legislative Updates & Whitehouse Petition

Senate Bill 406

Senate Bill 406 by Senator Jane Nelson just passed the Texas Senate and is on its way to the House. Although this bill continues the delegated model, once the law takes effect the new provisions will represent an improvement to our current regulations and will represent a good first step toward modernizing APRN practice in Texas.

While we are all pleased that the bill has passed the Senate, we still have a long road to hoe. SB 406 now moves to the Texas House and will be referred to the Public Affairs Committee chaired by Representative Lois Kolkhorst.  While there is still work to be done, we fully expect the bill to pass the committee and move on to the full House for consideration.  Before this bill ever passes the Texas House, it has to survive this hearing in the House Public Health Committee and then be scheduled on one of the House calendars where all 150 members will have a voice.  

Now is the time and the reason why it’s so important for you to join us in Austin every Tuesday and Wednesday as we work to secure passage of this measure. Your voice can truly impact the process and we need everyone’s involvement. If you are willing to come to Austin to visit with your locally elected officials, go to http://www2.mysignup.com/tnp2013legislativevisits and sign up for a day that fits your schedule.  David Williams will schedule your appointments and will team you with other APRNs for your meetings.  

Getting to where we are today has truly been a team effort led by the TNP Board of Directors, CNAP and TNA.  Join the team and help us pass SB 406.

TNP at the Capitol

This week at the Capitol, TNP submitted witness affirmation supporting two bills, HB 746 by Ashby and SB 505 by Deuell. 

HB 746 by Ashby is a bill relating to allowing health care providers to provide services across state lines in catastrophic circumstances.  This bill adds a new chapter to the Occupations Code authorizing volunteers who are registered with a volunteer health practitioner registration system to provide certain services across state lines in catastrophic circumstances. The bill would authorize the Texas Division of Emergency Management to regulate volunteer health practitioners while an emergency declaration is in effect. The bill would require that a volunteer health practitioner registration system be capable of confirming whether the volunteer health practitioners in the system are duly registered, licensed and in good standing. 

SB 505 by Deuell is a bill relating to an exemption from the licensing requirement for certain persons who measure or fit orthoses under the supervision of certain licensed health care practitioners. The bill creates an exemption from the licensing requirement for persons acting under the supervision of a licensed health care professional. The exemption would only extend to measuring and fitting devices that do not require clinical judgment. It would not change the licensing requirement for the more complex tasks, such as designing and fabricating devices. Currently, physicians and hospitals sometimes have to send their patients to a separate orthotics facility for a simply Velcro adjustment.  In rural settings, this can sometimes mean patients driving a great distance.

Building Coalitions

TNP has officially become a member of the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition.   The Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition is a coalition of organizations promoting access to preventive healthcare for all Texas women.  TWHC is working toward the vision of a state where every woman has access to the preventive and preconception care that will help her stay healthy and prepare for healthy, planned pregnancies. To read more about the TWHC and its mission, I encourage you to follow this link http://www.texaswhc.org/.  TWHC is having their Advocacy Day on March 20.  This would be a great day for you to advocate for women’s health and APRNs.

White House Petition

There is a petition on White House.gov to encourage President Obama to support removing restrictions on advanced practice nursing. If you are a supporter of this concept, click the link below, and share it with your friends!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-barriers-prevent-advanced-practice-registered-nurses-practicing-their-full-scope/4Z8X6s7C

Click the link below to view this message on the web:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/tnp/qtPiQ36N.aspx