Maryland Senate Bill 205 Blocked By Maryland Board Of Nursing

Jul 04, 2009 02:05 AM

by ltsgnn

RE: Senate Bill 205. This bill was opposed by Maryland Board of Nursing who also encouraged other nursing associations in Maryland to oppose the bill including The Maryland Nurse Association. How do you as Excelsior graduates/students feel about this bill since it affects you if you ever want to practice in this state? Are you an unsafe nurse due to your lack of clinical hours? If you disagree with the Maryland Board of Nursing and you live in Maryland or DMV you should band together and write the governor and let hime know the other side of the story. Sorry this looks long but I copied and pasted it is from the Maryland Nurse News and Journal, Just as a follow up to the bill.

MNA Protects Patient Safety by Blocking SB 205
The Maryland Nurses Association (MNA)
demonstrated the power of nurses in Annapolis
this session. When the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene (DHMH) introduced Senate Bill
205–State Board of Nursing–Licensing–Licensure by
Endorsement–Provisional Practice Permits, MNA
polled its members and sprang into action. MNA’s grass
roots pressure and intense lobbying efforts eventually
forced the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to
withdraw the bill, allowing them to avoid the bill being
killed.
SB 205 drew strong opposition because it raised
serious patient safety issues. The bill’s authors stated
that it was an attempt to alleviate the nursing shortage
by reducing “barriers” to licensure. However as soon as
the bill was introduced, nurses across Maryland began
to question its long-term implications for patient safety.
MNA partnered with other nursing organizations,
including the Black Nurses Association of Baltimore and
the Maryland Association of Nursing Students (MANS),
to oppose the bill.
The controversy over the bill centered on the creation
of two new pathways to licensure by endorsement.
Through licensure by endorsement, a nursing board
licenses a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse
who has a license from another state or country and has
passed an acceptable licensure exam. While licensure by
endorsement is already a common practice in Maryland
and other states, SB 205 created two new pathways for
licensure for individuals without complete educations.
MNA’s membership strongly felt that this lack of education would put patients at risk.

With the first new pathway,
the Maryland Board of Nursing
would have been able to license
an endorsement candidate who
lacked clinical training. Nurses
who met certain conditions
could substitute work experience
for clinical training. MNA’s
membership strongly felt that
nurses need structured clinical
training in order to learn how
to practice safely. The nurses
eligible for licensure through
this pathway would have
graduated from an accredited school that only offered a
final assessment of clinical skills without the preparatory
clinical training. These nurses would only have been
required to have 44 days of clinical practice experience
in the past year or 125 days in the past 5 years.
Under the second new pathway, the Maryland
Board of Nursing would have been allowed to issue a
provisional permit to an endorsement candidate who
was missing clinical or didactic training. While the
provisional permit holder would have only been allowed
to practice within a limited scope, MNA’s membership
felt that the provisional permit holder would put patients
at risk for two reasons: 1) A nurse needs complete clinical
and didactic training in order to deliver safe care. No
one has considered licensing other health professionals,
including physicians, without a complete education; and
2) Given the realities of the work place, it would be nearly
impossible for a nurse to stay within a limited scope of
practice. In most health care facilities, nurses get moved
from unit to unit and from shift to shift. There is no way
to guarantee that the provisional permit holder would not
be asked to practice outside the scope of the permit.
In response to such deep concerns about patient safety,
DHMH asked the Senate to amend the provisional permit
provision. The amendment renamed the provisional
permit to a temporary limited license. Under the new
name, an endorsement candidate could be missing one
didactic component. However, MNA’s concerns about
the bill still remained. The amended pathway for a
temporary limited license still allowed a nurse to practice
without a complete education. The pathway to allow
clinical experience to substitute for clinical training still remained intact.

IAfter the Senate passed the amended bill, MNA
continue to oppose the bill in the House. A good hearing
in front of the House Health and Government Operations
Committee revealed the bill’s problems to the legislators.
Shortly after the hearing, DHMH withdrew the bill.
MNA has agreed to continue discussions about
reducing barriers to licensure for qualified applicants, as
long as practicing nurses and educators are at the table.
As the legislative process revealed, workforce shortage
proposals need to be thoroughly vetted before being
implemented. Patient safety is too important to risk.
MNA would like to thank all of its members who contacted
their legislators about the bill and our partner nursing
organizations for their work. We also would like to extend a
special thank you to Robyn Elliott, MNA’s lobbyist, for her
efforts on this bill. We have demonstrated that nurses working
together can have a significant impact on the legislative process.ue

segalpn · Jul 04, 2009, 08:49 AM

Re: Maryland Senate Bill 205 Blocked By Maryland Board Of Nursing

I'm not from MD but I'm from GA. I wish you all the best because you'll probably be in for a long and drawn out battle just as we are/were (just read the extensive thread about GA BON). I guess every state will soon adopt the "safe/unsafe nurse" spiel. I don't think a letter writing campaign is a bad idea. Is EC in contact with MD students on a regular basis? In addition to writing the gov, write letters to the state reps also to ensure that they don't get only one side of the story. What irks me about the safety issue is the idea that a few hundred clincal hrs makes one a safer nurse than someone who has been a nurse for eons. In my state LPNs perform the same duties as RNs except initiate blood transfusions and perform admission assessments; however we do perform initial assessments in LTC. Just the other day in conversation an RN acknowleged the fact that we performed the same duties but for lesser pay. I don't forsee moving to MD as I love the deep south but for those of you that live there I say continue to fight. People (BON) sometimes only want to see how much they can get away with and how many buttons they can push. Please don't just accept what they are dishing out because I'm sure they have no evidence to back up their lies. Keep us all posted.

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Maryland Senate Bill 205 Blocked By Maryland Board Of Nursing

Maryland Senate Bill 205 Blocked By Maryland Board Of Nursing

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