Missouri Needs Fewer Legal Restrictions On Nurses

A couple of important bills will be considered in a Missouri Senate committee next week involving Advanced Practice Nurses (APRNs, or nurses with particular advanced nursing degrees and certifications). Currently, Missouri has unnecessary legal impediments to allowing them to serve patients without a doctor’s supervision. The fact is that many parts of rural Missouri have limited access to doctors and hospitals, and allowing nurses to fill that void is a sensible, low-cost way to serve many (but not all) of rural Missouri’s medical needs.

The two bills would address these needs by loosening the restrictions on APRNs so that they would be more able to open clinics and otherwise serve patients without the unnecessary supervision (in most cases) of doctors. Yes, there are issues that nurses need to refer to doctors, but I trust nurses to be able to know that difference. Opponents of these measures would have us believe that nurses will all of a sudden start doing major medical procedures without these restrictions. (That’s not a straw man argument; I’ve heard opponents say that at prior hearings on related issues.) I trust that nurses will know when to bring in doctors and refer out patients. In any case, the choice in rural Missouri is usually not between an APRN and a doctor. It is between an APRN and no medical care.

I hope these bills allowing nurses to have more freedom and authority to serve patients are given serious consideration. I think they would be a positive change for health care in our state.