Lobbying battle over giving nurses more authority to treat veterans intensifies

Six days before the window closes for public comments, a Veterans Affairs proposal to expand nurses’ authority to treat veterans without a doctor’s supervision has drawn 71,520 comments online. That’s one of the largest turnouts for a federal regulation in recent history, a sign that the stakes are still very high. VA runs the largest health-care system in the country, and the outcome of this potential change could reverberate in 29 states that still restrict the authority of nurses with advanced training.