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SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate bill passed earlier this month is helping expand patients' access to quality medical care in Utah by giving full practice authority to nurse practitioners.
Full practice authority allows nurse practitioners to provide medical care independently without the oversight of a physician.
SB36, sponsored by Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, was signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on March 14. This law eliminated the last barrier forcing nurse practitioners to hold a contract with a physician as a condition of their state licensure.
Removing that barrier and establishing full practice authority in its place has opened up options for nurse practitioners to operate their own practice. It will also give patients a greater number of options for receiving medical care.
April Kapu, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, expressed gratitude toward Cox.
"I think it was a very strong bipartisan movement to update that last law so that nurse practitioners could practice to the full extent of their education and training," Kapu said. "Now patients have the full benefit of the care that nurse practitioners provide."
Utah is the 27th state, along with two U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., to adopt full practice authority. Five of those states have adopted the regulation within the past 2 to 3 years, Kapu said.
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