UPDATE ON SB 8 – ADDITIONAL ACTION NEEDED

A couple of hours prior to the start of the hearing of the Senate Professional Registration Committee yesterday, Chairwoman Sen. Jeanie Riddle circulated a committee substitute version of her bill that removed the definition of surgery in response to the significant pressure that she was receiving from APRNs across Missouri. While this is certainly a small victory, the language that remains is still extraordinarily problematic.

AMNP continues to STRONGLY OPPOSE any version of this bill that 1) disallows NPs from using their earned academic title and 2) holds NPs responsible for advertising decisions potentially made by someone else. We will continue to work to defeat this bill and sincerely appreciate all of you who took time to call and email the senators on the committee. But the work is not done.

The senators on the committee need to know that the remaining provisions (title and advertising pieces) are still very much harmful to nurses by making it illegal to identify yourself as what you are (if you are a DNP). If you have time, please contact them again and let them know that you still very much oppose this unnecessary bill. Attached is a letter that was sent to committee members that shares our continued concerns. If you’d like, please use this as a reference point for your correspondence but please draft your own personalized message when contacting senators.

If you’d like to listen to the testimony from the hearing, skip to the 39:00 mark in the link below. AMNP President Julie Long’s testimony starts around 59:15 and testimony from AMNP CEO Derek Leffert at the 1:24:20 mark.

https://instatrac-production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...

Thanks again for making calls and sending emails. Please keep up the pressure!