Review of 2.27 Meeting and Notes on How to Stay in the Legislative Loop

Thank YOU For Coming Out to Advance the Cause of
ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSING!
We wanted to provide you an update on the success of our February 27th meeting. If you were in attendance, "THANK YOU!" If you weren't able to attend, we know you were there in spirit and we are grateful for that!

We are also very grateful for the support of our sponsors, who made it possible for us to meet as such a large group AND enjoy a meal together! Please remember to thank the folks from: Nurse On Call Home Health Care, Legacy Private Care of the Treasure Coast, Mobile Medical Associates and At Home Infusion Services for their support when you next see them.

A whole-hearted thank you to the many practitioners who indicated their desire to help with organizing ongoing meetings and programs, as well as to each of you who took the time to complete the surveys. We will be in touch soon regarding our plans for future meetings.

The February 27th meeting was an amazing success, thanks to all of YOU! There were 84 NPs and students in attendance, as well as leaders from both FNPN and the FLANP. FLANP CEO Susan Lynch gave an excellent presentation explaining the process for getting our legislation passed. Truthfully, politics is not pretty, but thankfully, for the first time in decades, we have the benefit of a collaborative effort by all the factions of advanced practice nurses working together to influence policy. As a result of these efforts we have two numbered bills making their way through committees at this time.
We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the courageous legislators who have stood up to the powerful lobbying machine of the FMA Sen. Denise Grimsley (RN) and Rep. Cary Pigman (MD). We raised in excess of $2600 for their campaigns which was carried by FLANP lobbyist, Chris Floyd, batched with contributions from all over the state and presented to these NP-friendly legislators this past Monday, the day before session opened.

On opening day, Sen. Grimsley introduced SB 1352 Health Care Practitioners. It is now in the Health Policy Committee, though not on the agenda of upcoming meetings of this committee. In a matter of minutes, you can create an account that allows you to track this bill so you are notified in a timely manner of the bill's progress. That way you will know when it is time to act! The next action on this bill will be to get it assigned to an agenda in this committee. At that point we will need your help by calling or emailing committee members to voice your support for the bill. After that there are two more committees for it to pass and then it goes to the floor. At each of these steps along the way to passage, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a flood of input by physicians opposed to passage. We must make our voices heard!

Rep. Cary Pigman introduced HB 7071 Advanced Practice Nurses. This bill has already made it through its first committee, thanks in large part to the individual efforts of so many ARNPs across the state who took the time to contact committee members. Unfortunately, at this time there is no activity on this bill. But sign up here to track it. The house does not re-convene until 3/11/14.

Stay connected, stay informed, and mobilize your colleagues.