Last week, Florida lawmakers passed a new bill to make Florida the final state in the union to grant Advanced Practice Registered Nurses the authority to prescribe controlled drugs to patients. Independent prescribing, or prescriptive authority, does not require collaboration with a physician and is a key element of scope of practice for APRNs.
For years, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing has advocated to align APRN regulations across the US. The board’s Campaign for APRN Consensus has worked to develop an Implementation Maps Project to chart how each state has progressed in granting the full scope of practice to APRNs. Florida has consistently lagged behind other US states in this implementation despite the Florida Nurses Association’s advocacy over the past two decades.
FNA Executive Director, Willa Fuller, has helped lead the advocacy for the latest controlled substance subscribing bill, which was first introduced in 1995. The bill now heads to Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, where he is expected to sign the bill into law.
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