March President's Update

MN APRN Coalition

March 2019 President’s Update

Hello Minnesota APRNs,

I am writing today as President of the Minnesota APRN Coalition to provide an update on the organization's activities. This year we have a bill in session. It is house file (HF) 1914/ senate file (SF) 1966. Many of you know that for the past two sessions we have introduced bills to align statutory language to be consistent with current APRN practice. In addition, language alignment often enables the APRN to sign necessary forms for care provision as well. 

In response to the work conducted in the past two sessions, the Coalition worked with the MN Board of Nursing and the State Reviser on a comprehensive review of MN statutes to find outdated language. This bill is a product of the meetings.  The bill updates many statutory references that only refer to physicians by adding a reference to APRNs.  We ended up with a bill focused on Health and Human Services, and it is 127 pages!  Representative Heather Edelson and Senator Mary Kiffmeyer are our chief authors. The bill was heard in the House Health and Human Services Policy committee last night and passed out of committee to Ways and Means to assess for any fiscal impact. We don’t think there will be any fiscal impact, so we are moving on to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.  If you are a constituent of any of the following Senators on that committee, it would be great if you could send them a quick note supporting SF 1966. Talking points that you might include in your message are attached. 

Senators: Sen. Scott Jensen (District 47); Sen. Rich Draheim (District 20); Sen.  Melisa Franzen (District 49); Sen. Jeff Hayden (District 62);  Sen. Matt Klein (District 52); Sen. Andrew Mathews (District 15); Sen. Carla J. Nelson (District 26); Sen. Julie Rosen (District 23); and Sen. Melissa H. Wiklund (District 50). 

We continue to monitor other legislation to ensure APRNs inclusion and have provided recommendations and/or suggested language for a number of bill authors. Remember, we can only do this work because of your membership, so if your membership has recently expired, please rejoin so we can continue to support your practice at the top of your education and skills.

Finally, with my election as President, the position of Vice President is open.  As per our bylaws, the board can appoint a member to fill this position for the remaining term until November 2019. If you are interested in this position, please send me a message to admin@mnaprnc.org. I can answer any questions about what the position entails. The board will consider any interested individuals who submit a notice of interest by March 20, 2019.

Thank you for the honor of serving as your President. Don’t forget about the 2nd Annual Pharmacology Review on April 26 and 27th. We have only about 20 tickets left for the event, so get yours quickly.

With regards,

Brian Goodroad