Several bills working their way through the Florida Legislature would give nurse practitioners the ability to prescribe stronger medications and clarify other duties. A second Senate committee has approved a bill that spells out the ability of highly trained nurses, known as practitioners, toorder controlled substances in the hospital. Senator Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, is a registered nurse who sponsors the bill. She gave the Senate Finance and Tax committee a brief explanation about prescribing versus ordering. "Prescribe is when a prescription is written and taken to the pharmacy. Order is when it's ordered in the hospital," Grimsley explained.
To become licensed as a registered nurse (RN), graduates of nursing programs must pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) administered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). Foreign RNs wanting to practice in the US must also take and pass the NCLEX. Thus, the annual data on the number of NCLEX exam takers and passers is a good metric of the nursing pipeline that will impact the future supply of nurses. The NCSBN annually publishes data on the takers and passers of the NCLEX by type of degree. We compiled the NCSBN data from 2001 through 2014 to assess recent trends.
Texas Health Resources filed a response Friday that "generally denies the allegations" in nurse Nina Pham's lawsuit that poor training and preparation caused her to contract Ebola while caring for a patient. The hospital system also denied violating Pham's privacy after she became a patient. Pham contracted the disease in October at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas Hospital while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan, who contracted the disease in his native Liberia, died Oct. 8. Pham sued Texas Health Resources last month. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
A plan to expand the powers of nurses hasn't yet caught on in the legislature, but eased out of a House Health panel Wednesday. The fate of bill remains cloudy, but its sponsor says even if it fails this year—the issue isn't going away. After initially stalling last week, a bill that would let nurses see patients without having the oversight of doctors, finally got moving Tuesday. House Bill 547 was the final proposal heard by the Health Innovation Subcommittee, and even though lawmakers approved it on a 9-to-4 vote, unclear whether the bill is enough of a priority, or even if it has enough support—to get through the House.
One of the first clinics in the state fully operated by nurses will start scheduling patients Wednesday in what University of Minnesota officials hope will be a solution to the state's looming shortage of doctors. The University of Minnesota Health Nurse Practitioners Clinic is an outgrowth of a law passed last year that gives autonomy to nurse practitioners. Previously, they needed to collaborate with supervising doctors to treat patients. Marquee goals of the clinic, a block from the Vikings' stadium in Minneapolis, are to improve medical access for downtown residents, tourists and commuters and to provide hands-on training for aspiring nurse practitioners who will now enter practice with more independence.
When Linda Hippolyte first got into nursing, she thought everyone at her hospital was paid based on their experience and education. But when she got a peek at other nurses' salaries at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside, she was in for a surprise. "You could really see the difference," she said, noting that male nurses seemed to be making more. "Why was this person who happens to be male making more than this person who is female, with the same experience?" For nurses, as for nearly everyone else in the U.S. workforce today, it pays to be a man.