The House Health and Human Services Committee advanced a bill on Monday that would strengthen mental health care in Florida by allowing psychiatric nurses to practice autonomously without barriers.
Rep. Jason Shoaf (R-Port St. Joe) explained his bill (HB 883) to the committee.
"The current law allows for advanced practice registered nurses to engage in autonomous practice in primary care. House Bill 883 will help address mental health care shortages by authorizing autonomous practice by psychiatric nurses with requisite credentials who treat mental health conditions already," Shoaf said.
"Floridians face significant accessing mental health care due to staffing shortages and a backlog of care needs. Out of the 50 states, Florida ranks 46th in mental health care access. This bill will do a lot to help with that," Shoaf said.
Sen. Corey Simon (R-Tallahasee) filed a similar bill in the Senate. Florida lawmakers also filed another bill giving more freedom to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) this session.
"Twenty-seven states currently allow full autonomous practice by these practitioners, and over 11,000 APRNS are practicing autonomously in Florida with no known pattern of disciplinary issues across dozens of state regulatory boards," Shoaf said.
Rosmarie Latham, a representative for the Florida Association of Nurse Practioners, expressed support for the bill. Latham has been a nurse for 44 years, including 26 as a primary care nurse practitioner.
"The deficit of mental health care providers puts a strain on the primary care provider. Any PCP (primary care physician) knows when to refer to a specialist," Latham said.
A different expert, Marek Hirsch of Florida Physciatric Society, asserted the bill would give full autonomous practice to psychiatric nurse practitioners with no limit to their score of practice.
"They would be prescribing physicotropic medication, many of which come with black box warnings of the must severe kind, without the supervision of a psychiatrist which is currently required," Hirsch said.
Rep. Robin Bartleman (D-Weston) opposed the bill, worrying more nurses would move out of rural areas.
"There's no provision in the bill guaranteeing they will go to a rural area. I am concerned about the scope of work issues," Baretleman said.
Shoaf played down those concerns.
"We don't force people to go work and live in a certain area. We can incentivize them. Happy to look at that," Shoaf said. "Also, we see time and time again extreme fear mongering, it always comes from industries trying to protect themselves. These nurses have been working in 27 other states, and we haven't seen the sky falling or any real problems."
If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis into law, HB 883/SB 758 would take effect on July 1.
