Bill Text: HI HB79 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Advanced Practice Registered Nurse; Education Requirements

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2013-04-19 - Act 019, 4/18/2013 (Gov. Msg. No. 1119). [HB79 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-HB79-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 910

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 79

       H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 79, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to change the degree requirements for advance practice registered nurse recognition from a master's degree in nursing to a graduate degree in nursing.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Board of Nursing; University of Hawaii; Hawaii Public Health; Hawaii State Center for Nursing; Prime Care Services Hawaii, Inc.; American Organization of Nurse Executives; Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses; The Queen's Health Systems; Hawaii State Center for Nursing; American Association of Nurse Practitioners; Healthcare Association of Hawaii; Hawaii State Center for Nursing; Blood Bank of Hawaii; and seven individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that currently only nurses who have a Master's degree in nursing can be recognized as advanced practice registered nurses in Hawaii.  This restriction absolutely bars nurses who earn advanced nursing degrees other than a Master's degree from being recognized as advanced practice registered nurses in the State.  Your Committee further finds that nurses who are recognized by other states as advanced practice registered nurses on the basis of having earned graduate degrees such as a Doctor of Nursing degree cannot be recognized as an advanced practice registered nurse in the State.  Hawaii is the only remaining state in the nation whose law recognizes only those nurses achieving a Master's degree in nursing as advanced practice registered nurses.  Your Committee finds it necessary to expand recognition as an advanced practice registered nurse to any nurse who has received a graduate degree in nursing.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 79, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair