From NAPNAP’s President:
The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) strongly opposes the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegate’s recent adoption of an updated policy that calls for certified nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists to be licensed and regulated jointly by the state medical and nursing boards. This recommendation is another attempt by the AMA to erect unnecessary barriers that limit patients’ choice and access to care.
For more than a century, state boards of nursing and other nursing regulatory bodies have been regulating nursing, the most trusted profession in the country. Nursing regulators are more experienced in nursing education and practice. They uniquely have the expertise to determine licensing and maintain oversight and discipline of all nurses, including advanced practice nurses.
AMA’s antiquated tactics have drawn criticism from the Federal Trade Commission who have repeatedly urged state legislators to “consider whether to allow independent regulatory boards dominated by medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy to regulate APRN prescribing, given the risk of bias due to professional and financial self-interest.”
In a time when health care providers are trying to recover from the overwhelming burdens and burnout caused by the pandemic and there are health care workforce shortages in most communities, the AMA’s proposal will cause further unrest among clinicians and confusion for patients. NAPNAP urges legislators in the 46 states who rely on the high-quality oversight from their boards of nursing to stay the course and calls for legislators in the other four states that have dually regulated advanced practice nurses to modernize their processes to improve timely access to evidence-based care and increase patient health outcomes.
June 20, 2023