CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Advanced practice registered nurses in West Virginia are now permitted to do more by law, but not as much as advocates have long pushed for at the State Capitol.
“APRNs have always wanted to practice to top of our education,” said Beth Baldwin, a pediatric nurse practitioner in Fairmont and president of the West Virginia Nurses Association.
“Which means, what we’re educated to do, we want the law to align to allow us to be able to do.”
After years of attempts at it, a new state law, viewed as a big step toward “full practice authority” for APRNs, took effect on June 10.
Overall, Baldwin predicted the additions will help expedite and build on existing health care, especially for critically ill, elderly or homebound people in West Virginia’s most rural areas.
In addition to existing duties, the work of APRNs in the Mountain State now includes signing death certificates following required training along with any other state certifications or registrations and prescribing Schedule III medications for as long as 30 days.
APRNs who’ve been part of collaborative agreements for more than three years can also apply for autonomous prescribing authority.
The new law, though, does not come with APRN prescriptive authority for Schedule II medications, which include many opioid painkillers, as originally proposed.
In response to critics who opposed allowing more people to write such prescriptions during an opioid epidemic, Baldwin said it was dropped as a tradeoff during negotiations at the State House to allow the legislation to pass during the 2016 Regular Legislative Session.
“We felt like getting out there and getting the care in rural areas and having APRNs be able to practice and prescribe autonomously was much more important, at that point,” she said.
The Schedule II prescribing issue, she predicted, will likely come up again.
West Virginia is one of only four states with that ongoing restriction, according to Baldwin who was a guest on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” via phone from San Antonio, Texas.
She was attending a conference for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.