Nurse practitioner changes approved
Lawmakers gave final approval April 17 to a bill intended to address the shortage of primary care providers in rural Nebraska.
LB916, introduced by Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, removes the requirement for an integrated practice agreement between a nurse practitioner and a collaborating physician and replaces it with a transition to practice agreement.
The new agreement is defined as a collaborative agreement between a nurse practitioner and a supervising provider, which may be a physician, osteopathic physician or nurse practitioner licensed and practicing in Nebraska. The supervising provider must be in the same practice specialty, related specialty or field of practice as the nurse practitioner being supervised.
A nurse practitioner must have 10,000 hours of practice to serve as a supervising provider.
The bill passed on a 43-0 vote.
