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Ohio House Bill 216

By Bankpang Malone posted 09-20-2015 07:32 PM

  

Ohio House Bill 216

On May 19, 2015, Ohio State Representative Dorothy Pelanda introduced legislation to modernize laws allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) to practice to the full extent of their education, training and certification. This legislation would remove the state mandated collaborative agreement between physicians and Advance Practice Nurses (APN), thus enabling APN’s to practice more autonomously in Ohio. With this law in place, APN’s would be able to fill the void on the current shortage of Primary care physicians and this would improve improve health care efficacy, increase access to health care and would reduce health care cost.

Ohio Bill 216 does not restrict APN’s from referring complicated patients to physicians or other health care professionals and it does mean that nurses are replacing doctors. APN’s and physicians both diagnose and treat patients, yet both professions are distinctive in their approach. APN’s are known to spend more time with their patients providing holistic care and educating patients using expressions that most patients would understand, thereby improving patients’ adherence to their treatments.

Question:

Considering that twenty states in the United States do not require a written collaborative agreement between APN’s and Physicians, Do new APN graduates practicing in these States feel extremely overwhelmed without a  collaborative agreement right after graduation ? Please share your experiences new and experienced NP’s. Thank You.

 

Bankpang Obi-Akatchak BSN

PMHNP student.

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Joyce Cahill
12-08-2015 11:04 AM

My experience as a new grad in 2001 as an Adult Primary Care NP and in 2002 as a Psych-Mental Health NP was indeed overwhelming and I appreciated having a collaborating agreement in place. The challenging part of both of those agreements was that each of my specialy physicians was not on site. That made it difficult to collaborate although not impossible. So, my perspective is that new grads need a collaborative agreement in place for their first year until they get a little grounded in their practice. I like what is shared on this board about the NP residency 1 year program for new grad NPs.