AFP-Florida Launches Digital Ads Urging Lawmakers to Expand Scope of Practice for Nurse Practitioners

Mar 4, 2020 by AFP

Tallahassee, FL – Today, Americans for Prosperity-Florida will launch a wave of digital ads urging state lawmakers to empower advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to use the full scope of their medical training. The legislation would not only expand access to quality health care, it would also save Florida as much as $9.5 billion in health care costs – almost $500 per Florida resident – and contribute an additional $1 billion to the economy in the form of increased wages and new jobs, according to a 2018 report.

AFP-FL State Director Skylar Zander issued the following statement on the need for scope of practice reform:

“Removing barriers to allow registered nurses to do what they are trained to do is good for patients, good for doctors, and good for the economy. Florida has already made historic strides in improving access to quality health care for all Floridians. This legislation would build on that success and help ensure that people living in the hundreds of regions facing physician shortages across Florida get the care they need. There’s no silver bullet to fixing our healthcare system, but commonsense steps like expanding scope of practice for qualified nurses is something we should all get behind.”

Last year the Florida legislature repealed major certificate of need laws, which regulated where and when new hospitals could be established in the state. Since that reform, new medical facilities are already in the works. Florida has more than 32,000 licensed APRNs who are fully trained and capable of providing many of the same services primary care physicians offer.

The ads, focusing HB 7053 in the House and SB 1676 in the Senate, will run through the end of the session. Click here to view a sample ad and click here to read an OpEd on scope of practice reform by Skylar Zander and Vernon Langford, the President of the Florida Association of Nurse Practitioners published in the Sun-Sentinel.