SB 360 Nursing Act Key Points

Aug 30, 2011

  1. Title changed from the Nursing and Advanced Practice Nursing Act to the “Nurse Practice Act.”
  2. The Act is reformatted: Each licensure category (LPN, RN and APN) is its own Article for ease of reading. Each article gives licensure requirements, education requirements and a specific scope of practice for each.
  3. Prohibits retaliation against any nurse who reports unsafe, unethical, or illegal health care practices or condition.
  4. Prohibits a nurse to be deemed a supervisor when delegating nursing activities or tasks.
  5. Creates a new section specific to nursing delegation that includes:
    • definition of nursing activity
    • definition of “task” and
    • designate who can delegate which to whom, including medication administration.
  6. Combines the APN Board into one Board of Nursing with 13 LPN, RN and APN members (no physicians). Provides that for proposed rules involving APNs that the Department must give them to the Medical Licensing Board for review and comment.
  7. Mandated continuing education for RNs and LPNs of 20 hours per licensure cycle.
  8. Requires proof of passage of the NCLEX examination to practice as a “License Pending Nurse.” 
  9. Advanced Practices Nurses:
    • All four specialties must have a written collaborative agreement with a physician or podiatrist for clinical practice outside the hospital or ASTC. CRNAs have the ability to have a written agreement for anesthesia services with dentists.
    • All four specialties may practice in a hospital or ASTC via privileging and credentialing without a written collaborative agreement.
    • Prescriptive authority, Schedule II:
      1. An APN may prescribe schedule II substances if authorized in the written collaborative agreement in a clinical practice outside the hospital or ASTC under the following conditions; 
        • No more than 5 controlled substances by oral dosage (the meds can be changed, but no more than 5 at one time), 
        • The physician must also prescribe the controlled substance in his/her practice, 
        • No more than 30 day supply, with renewal authorized by the collaborating physician, and 4) the APN must discuss the condition of any patient for whom controlled substances are prescribed with the physician at the monthly meeting (now meet in person rather than on-site). 
      2. In the Hospital or ASTC, an APN who is credentialed and privileged may be authorized to order, select, and administer medications to provide delineated care, including controlled substances. 
    • d. The term “medical direction” is replaced with collaboration and consultation. 
    • e. Maintaining national certification is a requirement for licensure renewal. 
    • f. Requires an APN to identify him/herself as an advanced practice nurse. 
  10. Impaired Nurse: in addition to the current language, the Department shall establish by rule a program of care, counseling, and treatment for the impaired nurse. The program shall allow an impaired nurse to self refer into the program, the licensee health care records shall be privileged and confidential and not available for use in any proceeding and not subject to disclosure. The Department is, however, not restricted in disciplinary actions based on other grounds set forth in another section of the act.