Government Objectives

On Thursday, February 3, 2010, nurse practitioners advocated for their bill SB 263, which would have removed barriers to access to care by nurse practitioners. The purpose of the bill would be to move the regulation of nurse practitioners from the Boards of Nursing and Medicine to the Board of Nursing. An update of the code of Virginia wishes to regulate contemporary practice patterns in order to adjust the “supervision” requirements of physicians and provide regulations related to the relationship between nurse practitioners and physicians. If this bill were to pass, nurse practitioners would be permitted to practice within their full scope of practice consistent with their education. This would broaden the eligibility for Nurse Practitioner prescription medicine prescribing, increase consumer access to quality healthcare, and foster nursing workforce development.