Legislative Efforts Fail To Resolve 'Turf War' Between Doctors and Nurse Practitioners [LA]
Posted almost 9 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"For more than a decade, nurse practitioners in Louisiana have been allowed to make some diagnoses, write prescriptions and treat patients to certain extent. But to do so in Louisiana, they must have a collaborative practice agreement with a physician -- a contract. The Louisiana State Board of Nursing since 2003 has had the sole authority to set rules and regulate these arrangements. But the medical examiner board would now like to make rules regulating collaborative practice agreements.
[Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Marksville], for the second year in a row, sponsored a bill in the current legislative session to prevent the medical examiners board from promulgating rules he says would effectively push some nurse practitioners out of practice.
He and supporters of the bill say the rules the medical examiners board proposed in the fall would be so onerous on doctors that it would deter them from entering collaborative arrangements with nurse practitioners -- thus precluding nurse practitioners from practicing.
Proponents of the medical examiner board rules say misinformation has been spread about their proposed rules, which have since been abandoned. Some noted it would only impact a handful of nurse practitioners."