Advanced practice nurses seek prescriptive authority - Brief Article

AORN Journal,  June, 2002  by J Bryant

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Advanced practice nurses in Georgia may be reviving a decade-long fight to give them the right to prescribe medications for patients, according to a Feb 22, 2002, news story from the Atlanta Business Chronicle. For the past eight years, this issue has been debated on the floor of the state Capitol.

Many lobbying groups, including the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA), are trying to determine whether support is strong enough to introduce a bill to give advanced practice nurses prescriptive authority. Advanced practice nurses include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists for psychology and mental health, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse midwives. Their opposition, the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG), says allowing nurses to prescribe is medically inappropriate and could cost patients. In the past, the MAG successfully has fought other medical professionals' attempts to gain prescriptive authority. Its successes, however, have been narrow at times. According to the story, Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor has indicated support for advanced practice nurses.

Georgia law allows advanced practice nurses to maintain an independent practice and call in prescriptions for physicians; however, it does not allow them actually to write prescriptions. Many rural areas would benefit from giving advanced practice nurses prescriptive authority because often there are fewer physicians in these areas.

J Bryant, "Nurse practitioners seek the ability to prescribe," Atlanta Business Chronicle (22 Feb 2002) http://www.bizjournals.com/industries /health.care/physician_practices/2002/02/25/atlanta_newscolumn4.html (accessed 25 Feb 2002).

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