TAFP recognized for excellence in scope of practice advocacy

posted 09.13.11

AAFP has again awarded TAFP the Leadership in State Government Advocacy award this year in recognition of the effort to preserve physicians’ scope of practice against attacks from advanced practice registered nurses. This is the third time TAFP has won this award. We claimed the prize in 2007 for our online news resources during the 80th Texas Legislature and in 2009 for working to pass the physician education loan repayment program.

In the year leading up to the 82nd Texas Legislature, TAFP members and staff developed a comprehensive set of resources including a series of three one-page issue briefs, an eight-page policy brief, and a five-page cover spread in TAFP’s magazine that armed TAFP members and lobbyists with the tools they needed to successfully defend physicians’ practice and ultimately protect their patients.

Several factors combined to fuel the effort by nurses’ organizations to extend independent diagnostic and prescriptive authority to APRNs in the state of Texas. They argued that they could provide lower cost, higher-quality care than their physician colleagues.

Throughout their campaign and the legislative session, TAFP stayed true to our message: that nurse practitioners and physicians share a goal to keep Texans healthy and productive, and to ensure that when they need it, patients have access to safe, high-quality medical care. We reinforced that advanced practice nurses are a vital part of Texas’ health care workforce and a vital part of the physician-led medical home.

In the end, the Legislature chose to preserve existing state policies that have the best interests of the patient in mind and did not extend independent practice to nurse practitioners in Texas.

The Ohio and New York chapters joined Texas in receiving the 2011 LSGA award for successes in their respective state legislatures. Chapters will accept the award at AAFP’ s State Legislative Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, in November, and present their award-winning effort to attendees from other states.