2016 MD Nurses Association Annual Convention

2016 Maryland Nurses Association
The MNA legislative committee supports initiatives that:
• Promote quality nursing care through education and licensure.
• Address nursing recruitment, retention, and diversity.
• Address the long-term workforce shortage including the faculty shortage.
• Ensure and protect the rights of nurses to provide quality care within their full scope of
nursing practice .
• Promote healthcare consumer safety, access to care, education, and self-determination.
• Promote safety in the workplace.
• Advocate expanding nursing roles in health care reform legislation and initiatives.
The Legislative Committee meets via conference call once a month during off session months and
every other week during the regular session of the Maryland General Assembly.
1. Advocacy: Legislation
This past session was extremely busy and productive for the Legislative Committee. MNA
sponsored a bill for the Maryland Board of Nursing (MBON) that has become law.
HB 490/SB 393 - Maryland Nurse Practice Act - Peer Review and Advisory Committees and
Penalties
This bill restores the misdemeanor provision in the Maryland Nurse Practice Acts to anyone violating
the following provisions:
• Practicing without a license (“Imposter Provision”. Applies to RN, electrologists, CNA, CMT,
Direct Entry Midwives)
• Misrepresentation (Title Protection – RN, LPN, CNA, CMA, CMT)
• Selling or practicing with a fraudulent record, diploma, license, or certificate.
The bill also allows the MBON to appoint peer advisory committees to obtain expert advice related
to the practice of nursing by APRNs.
The following table gives an overview of the committee’s work this past session:
MNA Supported Bills that
Supported bills that did not
Opposed bills that did not pass
passed
pass
16 6 11
The following are highlights of the 2016 session bills that became law and were MNA
supported:
HB 104
Medical Cannabis - Written Certifications - Certifying Providers
Del. Dan Morhaim et al.
The bill expands the definition of provider of Medical Cannabis to include all providers with
prescriptive authority: dentists, podiatrists, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives who are in good
standing with their respective boards.
90