Nurse practitioner bill vetoed

Gov. Dave Heineman vetoed a bill April 22 that would have changed practice agreement requirements for nurse practitioners in Nebraska.

LB916, introduced by Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, would have removed the requirement for an integrated practice agreement between a nurse practitioner and a collaborating physician and replaced it with a transition to practice agreement.

The new agreement was defined in the bill as a collaborative agreement between a nurse practitioner and a supervising provider, which could be a physician, osteopathic physician or nurse practitioner licensed and practicing in Nebraska. The supervising provider would have been required to be in the same practice specialty, related specialty or field of practice as the nurse practitioner being supervised.

Lawmakers passed the bill on a 43-0 vote April 17, the final day of the 2014 session.

In his veto message, the governor said LB916 would give nurse practitioners too much independence and that recent graduates of nurse practitioner programs would lack the clinical experience necessary to ensure patient safety under the bill’s provisions.