REPORT ON BILLS FAVORABLY REPORTED BY COMMITTEE

TITLE OF BILL:

AN ACT CONCERNING THE PRESCRIPTIVE AUTHORITY OF ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSES.

SPONSORS OF BILL:

REASONS FOR BILL:

To allow advanced practice registered nurses to request, sign for, receive and dispense professional drug samples in all settings.

RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:

NONE

NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:

Lynn Price, Connecticut Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Society, supports the bill. Due to increasing scrutiny about marketing, many pharmaceutical companies began to require specific statutory authority to allow APRNs to sign for and dispense sample medication. In 2004, when the statutes were amended to allow APRNs to sign for, request and dispense samples in many setting some APRNs were inadvertently left out by the way the language was inserted.

This bill clarifies that APRNs have identical scope regardless of setting. It will also remove the 30 year old site-specific language that is no longer meaningful to the practice. This bill will not change the prescriptive authority of APRNs.

Dr. Mary Jane Williams, Connecticut Nurses Association

Connecticut Nurses Association supports this bill as it would allow the advanced practice registered nurses to request, sign for, receive and dispense professional drug samples in all settings that they are now practicing in.

NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:

NONE