Please Oppose Senate Bill 1522 and Assembly Bill 2286

Oppose APN Scope of Practice Expansion in New Jersey

The New Jersey Legislature is considering legislation that will authorize independent practice by Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) and allow APNs to open their own practices in all medical specialties entirely without physician oversight or collaboration. This legislation disregards that multiple studies show APNs provide higher-cost, lower quality care, ignores the significant differences in education and training between physicians and APNs, and dismisses the benefits of team-based care for patients.

The legislation proposes to:

(1) remove the requirement that APNs have ongoing physician collaboration and instead allows APNs to collaborate with other APNs;

(2) eliminate the consumer protections found in joint protocol agreements, such as chart review and prescribing/practice protocols; and

(3) authorize a new class of nurses called “APN-Anesthesia” who would provide full service anesthesia care and have unlimited drug prescribing authority, all without any physician oversight.

We urgently need your assistance in contacting your lawmakers to ensure the physician community’s concerns are heard in Trenton.