STAND

STAND. COM. REP. 2464

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3085

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 3085 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NURSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish an advisory committee to advise the Board of Nursing on issues relating to the formulary.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from Hawaii Nurses Association, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Koolauloa Health Center, Waikiki Health Center, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Council of Hawaii Nurses Association, Hawaii Chapter of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners/Nurses, and seven nurses. Testimony in opposition was received from the Board of Medical Examiners, the Board of Nursing, and the Hawaii Medical Association.

Your Committee finds that advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) practice in collaboration with medical doctors and make independent practice decisions as well as prescribe medication as appropriate to the patients' conditions. APRNs currently operate under an unnecessarily restrictive arbitrary formulary governed by the Board of Medical Examiners. Your Committee further finds that the establishment of an advisory committee under the Board of Nursing would be more supportive and allow APRNs to function to their maximum capabilities.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to establish the joint formulary advisory committee;

(2) Amending Act 192, Session Laws of Hawaii 2002, as amended by Act 3, section 27, Session Laws of Hawaii 2003, relating to nurses;

(3) Requiring one of three advanced practice nurses on the joint formulary advisory committee to be from a school of nursing with an APRN program;

(4) Requiring one of three licenses physicians on the joint formulary advisory committee to be from the John A. Burns school of medicine and appointed by the dean of the school of medicine; and

(5) Requiring the joint formulary advisory committee to submit a report to the Legislature.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3085, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3085, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

		____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair