CA: Long-Fought Nurse Practitioner Independence Bill Heads to Gov. Newsom for signature.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

California State Assembly passed AB 890--Bill permits Independent NP Practice AFTER 3yrs. physician collaboration, other restrictions.  Won't take effect until 2023.  Karen

Kaiser Health News 9/1/2020

Long-Fought Nurse Practitioner Independence Bill Heads to Newsom

Quote

 

SACRAMENTO — After years of failed attempts and vociferous opposition, California lawmakers on Monday adopted a measure to grant nurse practitioners the ability to practice without doctor supervision — but only after making big concessions to the powerful doctors’ lobby, which nonetheless remains opposed....

...California is behind most other states in empowering nurse practitioners. If the bill becomes law, the state would join nearly 40 others to grant some level of independence to nurse practitioners; 22 grant full independence, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. California would have among the most restrictive policies on nurse practitioner independence in the country....

...Under Wood’s measure, nurse practitioners would be able to see patients in their own practice, but only after working under physician supervision for at least three years. The bill also contains many other restrictions....

There’s nothing clean about Wood’s bill, which was heavily amended in the state Senate. Instead of simply lifting the supervision requirements on nurse practitioners, the measure imposes several hoops for nurse practitioners to jump through. Before they could practice independently, nurse practitioners would have to be certified by preapproved national nursing boards, and possibly complete additional California-specific testing if accredited out of state.

Once certified, they would have to practice under physician supervision for at least three years — up to six in some cases — before they could strike out on their own. And they would have to disclose to patients that they aren’t doctors....

https://khn.org/news/long-fought-nurse-practitioner-independence-bill-heads-to-newsom/

 

AB-890 Nurse practitioners: scope of practice: practice without standardized procedures.

Bill text:  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB890