Urgent: To All Members

Thank you for alerting us to this egregious overstepping of professional boundries! All efforts will be mobilized!

I am not certain about the campaign that has started in regards to nurse protocol changes. Does this campaign represent the voice of all UAPRN members? I think we need to discuss. Campaigns that are launched represent all UAPRNs in the state and the issues to be addressed need to be representative of all types of practice . MDs are now being required to have check-offs on procedures that are performed in institutions. That is a part of their credentialing requirements. Wouldn't we want to know the MD sticking a needle in our back for epidural with childbirth is competent to do so? Don't we all recredential in CPR ? Didn't we all have to prove we could insert IVs before we were allowed to do it? I am not certain this is restrictive: for that may be not allowing NPs the practice at all. But rather this is a act of ensuring that all providers maintain integrity and quality in the institutions and for the patients we serve. If you do these procedures then surely some MD has determined that you are competent to do such. So get the form signed. If we are truly interested in moving into the next phase of Advanced practice, then I think we must evaluate the meaning of many changes and stop whining to our colleagues whom we desire to practice with.

Thank you for your comments. Make your voices heard. Please send your letters as soon as you can. The Composite Board will be having a meeting regarding this issue on November 4, 2015,

From my research, it seems that Georgia law allows collaborating MDs to make the protocol form into any format it desires. So if we are to attack this, we must eliminate the very law that allows it to happen - the one that requires a collaborative agreement in the first place. Only a well-funded lobbyist leading an organized group of all APRN organizations in the State has any chance at accomplishing that.

Susan, in my mind it is not about checking off procedures. The bigger issue is we have the Board of Nursing. They are the ones that should be charged with governing our practice. That is to say, governing nursing practice. What we do is within the scope of advanced practice nursing and the Medical Board is not the appropriate body to govern. Additionally, if they deem changes need to be made, then it should be based on their bringing their concerns to the BON and having a broader discussion WITH APRN'S before they make a sweeping change that can affect ALL APRN's in this state. I don't think anyone would have issue with proving one's competence before practice, I don't. But, I also think it a problem if an APRN has to do this every time a change in a collaborative physician is made. How many times does one have to prove they can do the job before they are able to do the job? Remember, this is per collaborative physician agreement, not institutional.