Educating a Patient that lives outside of the state from I have my license

[RNChristy]

May 10 by RNChristy A member since Jun '11 - from 'South Florida'. RNChristy has '12' year(s) of nursing experience and specializes in 'Telemetry, ICU/CCU, Specials, CM/DM'. Posts: 60 Likes: 55

Awards:

I was wondering if any of my fellow Case/ Disease Managers have ever encountered this. I work for an insurance company working as a Disease Case Manager and I have a question regarding a member that lives out of the state for which I have my license. This member has his policy with my state's plan and has retired to another state. Would doing education with this member telephonically be outside my scope of practice due to not having a license from where the member resides?

Thanks, Christy

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Interesting question, but I doubt this is a problem. Your license allows you to practice nursing for an employer located in that state ... regardless of where your patients originate from.

My hospital is a trauma center and tertiary-care facility that routinely sees patients from a 5-state region. Trauma and specialty service case managers follow up with patients after discharge, after they have left the state. Not an issue.

[RNChristy]

Just FYI

After researching and emailing my state's BON, I found out that you also have to find out from the other state's BON to see if this is beyond the scope of their Nurse Practice Act. After reviewing the other state's Nurse Practice Act and emailing the other state, I found that is was beyond the scope due to not having licensure in their state for the work that I would be doing. Per the Nurse Practice Acts (and depending on the state), a nurse may not have to have that state's licensure depending on the situation. So even if your state says it may alright, definitely check with the state in which you would be practicing.

Christy