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FNPN - Florida Legislative Advocacy
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American Nurses Association Congressional Contact Form
Legislative Update
by Anna Small, Legislative Counsel
January 25, 2008
January 2008 brought us two committee weeks for the 2008 Legislative Session. The first week was relatively uneventful as far as FNA's specific bills were concerned. There was significant discussion regarding the budget shortfall and its repercussions.
At the close of the second committee week, we have managed to get all of our priority bills filed and even helped the Florida Hospital Association pass the Safe Lifting Bill out of its only committee of reference in the Senate.
Safe Patient Lifting
SB 508/ HB 471 by Senator Saunders and Representative Patronis In sharp contrast to last year's contentious hearing in Senate Health Regulation, this week the Safe Patient Lifting bill was passed unanimously out of the committee. An excellent example of what happens when the three associations, FHA, FNA, and SEIU work together to support legislation which will protect our direct care nurses from injury.
Clinical Nurse Specialist Bill
SB 736/ HB 285 by Senator Saunders and Representative Kiar FNA has been working hard to come up with a solution to the unintended consequences of last year's clinical nurse specialist bill. While last year's bill provided the means for licensure and acknowledged the advanced education, training, and experience of CNSs, it also resulted in CNSs not being able to use their titles until they get their license from the Board of Nursing. Additionally, not all CNSs may qualify as CNSs under the law passed in 2007 since there are CNS specialties for which there is no nationally recognized certification exam. We met with the sponsors of the bill this week as well as key Representatives in the House and Board of Nursing staff to come up with language which will provide alternative criteria for CNS licensure. It is possible the bill will be heard in the Health Quality Committee in the first week of February.
Clinical Laboratories Bill
SB 716/ HB 695 by Senator Fasano and Representative Garcia This bill will add ARNPs to the list of providers from whom clinical laboratories are mandated to accept specimens. Clinical Labs may now accept specimens from ARNPs, if they so choose, but the change in language would require them to. Clinical laboratories must presently accept specimens from allopathic and osteopathic physicians, physician assistants, chiropractors, podiatric physicians, naturopaths, and dentists. The bill was officially filed in the House this week and may be heard in a Senate committee in the first week of February.
Improving Patients' Access to Care f/k/a Controlled Substance Prescribing
SB 972/ HB 515 by Senator Saunders and Representative Zapata This bill is intended to improve patients access to care by permitting controlled substance prescriptive privileges for ARNPs whose practice location is in Medically Underserved Areas and Medically Underserved Populations as defined by Health and Human Services. This bill will hopefully be referred to the House Health Innovation Committee and has been referred to Senate Health Regulation. You can help by contacting the members of these committees to encourage them to support the bill. You can also help by encouraging your patients who are negatively affected by your inability to prescribe controlled substances to write letters of support which we can then distribute to members of the legislature.
HIV/AIDS Educational Requirements
HB 153/ SB 646 by Senator Margolis and Representative Cusack, RN.
A couple of years ago we amended the requirement that health care providers take HIV/AIDS continuing education courses every two years. We supported that legislation because the medical care of HIV and AIDS is not changing as rapidly as it once was and the repetition of the same course every two years was redundant. However, the law which governs certain types of facilities must still take the HIV/AIDS course every two years. There was no action with regard to this bill in the past committee week.
School Nurse Services
HB 495 by Representative Grimsley, RN This bill would allow school nurses to have certain amounts of epi-pens on hand for use in case of emergency in schools. FNA will support this bill which will make it a little bit easier for school nurses to meet the needs of the children they serve.
Also during the past weeks we monitored bills which could have either positive or negative effects on the practice of nurses or a general impact on healthcare. Healthcare is a hot topic now and there is additional concern due to the state of the economy and the budget. We will continue to keep you informed as issues develop.
From the Florida Nurses Association:
While the legislature has been embroiled in Special Sessions, we have been developing our legislative agenda for 2008 and working to obtain bill sponsors. The FNA Board has decided to support the Florida Hospital Association's Safe Patient Handling Bill. The Bill will require hospitals develop a safe patient handling policy. The policy will be developed by a committee on which there must be equal representation from management and non-management staff, including representation by registered nurses involved in direct patient care. In developing the policy the committee may consider the use of lift teams, mechanical lifts, architectural specifications, and training in safe lifting procedures. The hospital must evaluate the effectiveness of its policy.
The bill as been filed in the Senate by Mike Fasano as SB 508. Representative Jimmy Patronis has agreed to file the House version of the bill.
We are very excited to be able to support this good bill and work closely with the Florida Hospital Association to protect nurses from injury.