Lawmakers said the bill was designed to address the state’s physician shortage, which is among the worst in the nation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Under current law, advanced practice registered nurses can provide care consistent with their training without the supervision of a physician. The bill would require APRNs to maintain collaborative agreements with physicians that require the collaborating physician to review 10% of the APRNs’ treatment charts once a month.
Once an advanced practice registered nurse passes 8,000 hours of experience, they would be exempted from the collaborative agreement requirement. For certified registered nurse anesthetists, the 8,000 hours of experience would need to include actual clinical hours.
