STEP 1: Understand What You Need to Do

Call to Action:

It is important that all NPs reach out to the members of the Health Policy Committee and the Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee. We need everyone to contact FL Senate legislators via phone calls on Monday morning with the Senate verbage reading as below. You can also contact the House members with the language under that section.

STEP 1: CALL OR EMAIL SENATORS WITH THE VERBAGE BELOW. WE PREFER CALLS TOMORROW MORNING BUT IF YOU CAN'T THEN SEND AN EMAIL PLEASE

There is also a template to send an email to the House members. Please personalize the yellow highlighted areas as appropriate and then remove the highlighted color! Thank you.

 Speak to the Legislative Aide or directly to Senator and identify yourself. If emailing then use Dear Senator--------

SB230 sponsored by Senator Gayle Harrell has been set for a vote on Monday, February 20th at 3PM. I encourage you to vote NO on the amendment to this bill until ALL stakeholder concerns can be addressed. The Board of Medicine should only discipline their own profession and each profession has it's own board with each board having authority over discipline of its own licensees. This should not change. No profession should be able to discipline another profession.

 

Insert your name and credentials here

Example: Doctor of Nursing Practice

Example: Family Nurse Practitioner

Please add your email here so you can be contacted by your legislator

Please add your phone number so they can reach out to you.

STEP 3: Prepare your email or make your phone call

Copy and paste the below emails for SB230 to:

burton.colleen.web@flsenate.gov (850) 487-5012

brodeur.jason.web@flsenate.gov   (850) 487-5010

albritton.ben.web@flsenate.gov   (850) 487-5027

avila.bryan.web@flsenate.gov   (850) 487-5039

book.lauren.web@flsenate.gov  (850) 487-5035

broxson.doug.web@flsenate.gov  (850) 487-5001

burgess.danny.web@flsenate.gov   (850) 487-5023

calatayud.alexis.web@flsenate.gov   (850) 487-5038

davis.tracie.web@flsenate.gov    (850) 487-5005

garcia.ileana.web@flsenate.gov    (850) 487-5036

  (850) 487-5032

harrell.gayle@flsenate.gov    (850) 487-5031

 

Add this subject line:

 Vote NO on the amendment for SB230 (Healthcare Practitioner Title and Abbreviations)

 

Copy and paste the template personalized.

Send the email

 

STEP 4: Please see Attached Representatives login information and e-mail them the attached letter.

Dear Representative:

I encourage you to vote NO on HB583 (Healthcare Practitioner Title and Abbreviations) sponsored by Representative Massulo. There is already:

• Current law requires health care practitioners to inform patients about their credentials. Violations for misleading or deceptive statements, or offering to practice beyond one’s scope of practice, include professional licensure sanctions, suspension, restrictions, and probation. Violators may be subject to administrative fines and be forced to undergo “remedial education.” (Fla. Stat. 456.072 (2006)).

Why not just enforce this current law?

This bill is very concerning for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) and it is important for you to understand why APRNs are receiving their doctoral degrees and what it means to healthcare and our patients. 

• APRNs advance their education to the Doctoral level not for the “Doctor” title but to strengthen healthcare delivery and practice so we can provide the highest level of care in a changing and complex healthcare environment to improve patient outcomes. 
• This bill does not allow for transparency in alignment with our national board certification if we are not able to use our designated credentials, such as FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner), ACAGNP (Acute Care Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner), PMHNP (Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner), WHNP (Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner), etc. This completely defeats the purpose of transparency this bill requires. In fact, it actually is not being honest with the patient if we can not share our true credentials in a specialty we were trained and educated in. 
• National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties has committed to moving all entry level nurse practitioner education to the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree by 2025 
• The bill falsely expresses that we do not understand our legal responsibilities as healthcare providers. All APRNs and Physicians have the same responsibility to be transparent to patients.
• Currently, in HB607, there is no discussion that autonomous APRNs would have a title change yet HB583 and SB230 want to change the title to A.-APRN and if we use the doctoral degree while in practice, then it would need to be D-A.-APRN. This is confusing for healthcare providers and for patients. They will not understand what the D actually means. This is not provided transparency to our patients.

I encourage you to VOTE NO on this bill in its current state as it is not an accurate bill allowing for transparency. I need to be able to designate my titles and my degrees to my patients in a true and transparent manner as written below in my signature line. I need to be able to designate my title as follows: 

I am a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), licensed as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), nationally board certified in Family Practice as a nurse practitioner (FNP-BC), etc. 

I believe my credentials are extremely important for my patient and other healthcare providers to see. I hope that you can also see that this is a necessity. 

 Thank you for your time and I hope you will see my points above and VOTE NO on HB583. I would be more than happy to discuss or clarify any of my concerns. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. 

 

Insert your name and credentials here

Example: Doctor of Nursing Practice

Example: Family Nurse Practitioner

Please add your email here so you can be contacted by your legislator

Please add your phone number so they can reach out to you.

 

Here are the Representatives on the Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee: Reference HB583

Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee | Florida House of Representatives (myfloridahouse.gov)

 

Congratulations! You did it! THANK YOU!