The California Senate is currently considering a bill that would grant full practice authority to nurse practitioners (NPs). This bill (AB 890, Wood) would remove critical patient protections by allowing NPs to practice without physician supervision.

AB 890 is merely an outline of a major policy change, which lacks critical details related to nurse practitioner competency requirements, scope limitations and many other details. As it stands, it is  dangerous to move forward with this bill, which will do nothing to improve access to health care in California.

The California Medical Association (CMA) strongly believes that simply expanding the scope of practice of allied health practitioners to give them independent and/or expanded practice will do nothing to improve access to care or quality of care in our state. Allowing practitioners to perform procedures they simply aren’t trained to do can only lead to unpredictable outcomes, higher costs and greater fragmentation of care.

CMA is encouraging physicians to contact their senators now and ask them to protect patient safety and vote NO on AB 890.