As of right now the bill in support of Full Practice Authority (FPA) for TN APRNs is NOT planned to be voted on in 2015. It is also our understanding that the bill against FPA will not be voted on in 2015 as well. However, we had productive meetings with the following TN legislators on Wed. 3/18/15 and encourage you to please contact them and tell them THANK YOU for meeting with us! Senator Yarbo Senator Overby Rep Williams Rep Faison Rep Goins Rep DeBerry Rep Clemmons Rep Yarbo Rep Harrison Rep Favors Lack of education about APRNs: We were told yesterday that APRNs had NOT come to visit them nor had anyone informed them about what APRNs are educated to do and what exactly FPA means to us and all of our patients. Most were not aware that ALL a collaborating MD does is sign 20% of our charts and we pay them monthly. They had the misconception that if APRNs had FPA that we would never collaborate with a MD again. We quickly informed them that our education included that we are to refer to specialist when we have a patient that is beyond our scope of practice and that needs further evaluation and treatment which would NEVER change if we got FPA. So if you are an APRN, please call your Senator & Rep TODAY as they stated they wanted to hear from the APRNs in the area they represented. Schedule a face to face visit and go talk to them about what you do every day and what Full Practice Authority would mean for you and all of your patients. If you own a clinic, then please invite them to come visit your clinic and see what you are offering their constituents. If you are not an APRN, please still call your Senator & Rep TODAY as they want to hear from you as well about why you support FPA for APRNs. Go to the following webpage and enter in your home address and then it will inform you of who your Senator & Rep is so you can contact them TODAY! http://www.capitol.tn.gov/legislators/ Overprescribing of narcotics: Another hold back for FPA is the issue of overprescribing of pain medications in TN which is being blamed on APRNs. If you work in a pain clinic, oncology clinic, orthopedic clinic, or hospice then please call your Senator and Rep TODAY and make an appointment to meet with them to discuss your work environment with them. Tell them if the clinic you work at is owned by a MD and how MDs have to sign off on your charts when you Rx a narcotic so therefore they agreed with the plan of care. We educated them about this and how it is the APRNs names that are listed in the TN Controlled Monitoring Database and not the MDs even though the MDs agreed with the narcotic Rx being written. Communication: We were also informed how they have been bombarded with emails, phone calls about FPA and some of them have been very hateful and demanding from APRNs. PLEASE keep in mind that we are professionals and kindness goes much further than hate. One of them stated that post cards are read more than emails so let's send them postcards. Representative Favors who is sponsoring our bill in the House has requested articles published by APRNs to be emailed to her at rep.joanne.favors@ capitol.tn.gov. So PLEASE continue to bombard them with phone calls, emails, postcards, faxes, letters, personal messages via facebook, twitter..... but share facts about APRNs and FPA and ALWAYS be professional. Where do we go from here? I have NOT given up and have been informed by some of the above that they will help to get FPA for APRNs in TN. For those of you who are not aware....a bill MUST have majority votes to get past the committee because if it goes before the committee and does NOT get majority votes then it can NOT be reintroduced for 2 years. If our bill does NOT get voted on before end of April, then it will have to wait until 2016. So right now, our current goal is to focus on the Senators & Reps in the Health Committee and to help them to understand why their vote for FPA is crucial for their constituents who vote for them and keep them in office. CONTINUE TO LET TN SENATORS & REPRESENTATIVES KNOW THAT WE WILL NOT QUIT CONTACTING THEM UNTIL TN APRN'S GET FPA!!!!