APNs can sign death certificate, determine cause of death [NJ]
Posted almost 10 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"A new law signed in May by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gives the state's advanced practice nurses authority to determine and certify cause of death and sign a patient's death certificate when the nurse is the primary care provider and a collaborating physician is not available.
According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the legal authority to sign the certificate allows it to become a completed legal document to be used for vital records data collection and decedent affairs. Before the law taking effect, NPs were authorized to pronounce death and complete all the elements, including determining the cause of death, but the document was not officially completed without a physician's signature. Now NPs are authorized to sign the form and make it a legal document.
The law will allow paperwork to be expedited and help families move forward with burial plans when they might otherwise be waiting on a physician's signature.
The law also may lower the number of unnecessary autopsies. 'It reduces delays and reduces the hardships on the family bereavement process,' Suzanne Drake, PhD, RN, a psychiatric advanced practice nurse and director of public relations for the Society of Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses of the New Jersey State Nurses Association said."