November 4, 2013

The Honorable Kristin Olsen

California State Assembly
State Capitol, Room 2111
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Honorable Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen,
We are writing to support of SB 491, which is a bill that would increase the scope of practice
for nurse practitioners. We are student nurses at California State University, Stanislaus and
members of the Student Nurses Association. After receiving our Bachelors of Nursing, our
goal is to become nurse practitioners, which is why the passage of this bill is important to us.
Nurse practitioners are advanced practice nurses who have completed a masters or doctoral
degree. By 2015 all NPs will be required to complete a doctoral degree, further advancing
their clinical competencies.
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, it is expected that up to 7 million new
patients will now be included in Californias health care system. Thus increases the need of
competent primary health-care professionals, but as of now, we do not have the numbers to
meet these demands. A way to help with this demand would be to increase the scope of
practice for nurse practitioners, thus increasing the number of potential patients for them to
see and decreasing the large workloads that physicians are experiencing. Passing this bill has
proved successful in other states already. For example, in Arizona, the Nurse Practitioner
Independence Act was passed in 2001 and since then the number of NPs has increased by
50% demonstrating that NPs can independently make important contributions in delivering
primary care to underserved populations.
The concern with this bill is that NPs would be practicing outside of their level of training
without direct oversight by a physician, which can lead to potential harm to patients.
However, the bill states that NPs would only practice those skills in which they have been
thoroughly educated and trained. Nurse practitioners undergo extensive educational training
for an average of six years to become certified in their areas of clinical practice and become
capable health care professionals promoting patient wellness.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions please feel free to
contact us at (209) 210-8430.
Kaylee Blankenship, SN
LeAnna Ceglia, SN
Maggie Fabry, SN