Currently, Oklahoma advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs)—including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and certified nurse midwives—require the supervision of a physician to prescribe. Under HB 2298 and SB 569, APRNs would no longer need a supervising physician once they met certain requirements. While these bills are similar, they contain different provisions for independence.

Under HB 2298, an APRN who completes 6,240 hours of practice supervised by a physician or in an accredited residency program could submit an application for independent prescriptive authority to the Board of Nursing. Under this bill APRNs would need to maintain malpractice insurance of $1 million per occurrence and $3 million in aggregate. This bill also allows rules to be adopted that govern the supervisory relationship, including setting caps on fees charged by the physician for supervising and limits on the number of APRNs a physician could supervise.

Under SB 569, APRNs would need to complete three years of supervised practice before applying for independent prescriptive authority. These APRNs would also need to maintain malpractice with the same limits as HB 2298. This bill authorizes the Board of Nursing to adopt rules governing advertising of services by APRNs with independent prescriptive authority.

The majority of states allow nurse practitioners to practice independently. Most states have begun to provide reduced oversight or more flexibility but still retain the physician oversight. HB 2298 and SB 569 would solidly go along with this trend in providing independence for APRNs. Because they are so similar, there is a good chance that they may be amended to be identical if they both advance through the legislative process. If you would like additional information, to read the language of the bill or to contact the sponsors or committee, you can find the information you need through these links HB 2298 and SB 569.