June 2019 President's Message

MN APRN Coalition

June 2019 President’s Update

Dear Minnesota APRN,

It has been three months since my last President’s letter, and I wanted to give you an update to the end of our last legislative session and the ongoing work of the Minnesota APRN Coalition. When last I wrote, our third and largest statutory language and practice alignment bill was making its way through House and Senate Committees. We made it through the House Health and Human Services Policy committee, and our Chief House Author Representative Heather Edelson was confident of it moving to the floor. We experienced a delay on the Senate side when the night before our bill was to be heard in the Senate Health and Human Services committee, it was pulled by our Chief Author Senator Mary Kiffmeyer. I, along with our Government Affairs Specialists Maureen O’Connell and Lisa Fink, CNM as well as Board of Nursing representative Julie Sabo, Ph.D., APRN, CNS, FCNS met with Senator Kiffmeyer the next morning, and she noted that she had received some “push back” on the bill.  However, she was not willing to provide us details as to who the push back came from, or what the specific issues are. She noted she would be unable to meet to talk about these issues until the session was complete. So, we consider this a delay in our clean-up bill, but we are hopeful it will move forward in this upcoming second year of the biennium. In the meantime, we will meet with the Department of Human Services to work on some issues they had with specific sections of that bill to reconcile those issues before the upcoming legislative session.

On a brighter note, I am happy to tell you that the Board of Directors approved the appointment of Kerry Johnson, DNP, APRN, CNP to the Vice President position. The position was vacated by my election to the President role. Kerry will complete the remainder of the VP term until November 2019. Kerry has a great deal of experience in legislative advocacy and leadership having served as president of the Association of Southeast Minnesota Nurse Practitioners and having lead grassroots lobbying efforts with the Coalition in the passage of full practice authority in 2014. Since that time, Kerry has moved to the Twin Cities and is currently an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Metropolitan State University. Kerry looks forward to involvement with the Minnesota APRN Coalition, especially with our continuing legislative efforts. Welcome Kerry!

The MN APRN Coalition has a very successful 2nd Annual Pharmacology Review in April. Despite moving it to a later calendar date at the end of April due to previous experience with inclement weather, we still barely missed a severe snowstorm!  We sold out the update, and reviews were very positive. Thank you to Immediate Past President Renee Dahring who chairs the education committee, and to the entire committee for such a wonderful job. Please stay tuned for other educational events. We are currently planning a shorter morning session on Sex Trafficking and considering a potential one-day pharmacology review to be held in a location outside the metro Twin Cities area.

In closing, I would like to remind you that membership in the MN APRN Coalition is vital for our continued success in our efforts to improve patient access to, and choice of, safe, cost-effective healthcare providers. Our efforts to remove statutory, regulatory, and institutional barriers preventing APRNs from practicing at the highest level of their education is as important as ever.  Our spring experience with our bill being pulled without our involvement underscores the importance of maintaining a constant vigilant presence and voice at the Capitol. Please consider renewing if your membership has lapsed and rejoin when you get our membership renewal request. YOU are vital to our continued success!

Enjoy our short Minnesota summer, and the happiest of summer holidays to you all.

Sincerely,

Brian K. Goodroad