Missouri is moving to let well-trained nurses write prescriptions for stronger drugs.
Nurse practitioners have been able to write prescriptions for thirty years. But they cannot write prescriptions for higher level drugs that fall into the five categories of controlled substances.
Senator Delbert Scott of Lowry City wants to let Advanced Practice Registered Nurses have that authority. But they have to have collaborative practice agreements with Doctors. And the doctors can limit the narcotic drugs they can prescribe.
The APRN who wants to have this authority has to have additional education in controlled substance prescriptive authority plus at least 300 hours of in-the-field training in prescriptions, and at least one-thousand hours of practice in advance practice nursing.
Some opponents want to kill the bill or strictly limit what the APRNs can do. Scott says it’s time Missouri joined 47 other states that have seen the value of this service.
The senate could send the bill to the house in a matter of days.
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