BILL NUMBER: SB 323INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Hernandez (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Eggman) FEBRUARY 23, 2015 An act relating to healing arts. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 323, as introduced, Hernandez. Nurse practitioners. The Nursing Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of nurse practitioners by the Board of Registered Nursing. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations with respect to the importance of care provided by nurse practitioners. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Nurse practitioners are a longstanding, vital, safe, effective, and important part of the state's health care delivery system. They are especially important given California's shortage of physicians, with just 16 of 58 counties having the federally recommended ratio of physicians to residents. (b) Nurse practitioners will play an especially important part in the implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), which will bring an estimated five million more Californians into the health care delivery system, because they will provide for greater access to primary care services in all areas of the state. This is particularly true for patients in medically underserved urban and rural communities. (c) Due to the excellent safety and efficacy record that nurse practitioners have earned, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has recommended full practice authority for nurse practitioners. Currently, 20 states allow nurse practitioners to practice to the full extent of their training and education. (d) Furthermore, nurse practitioners will assist in addressing the primary care provider shortage by removing delays in the provision of care that are created when dated regulations require a physician's signature or protocol before a patient can initiate treatment or obtain diagnostic tests that are ordered by a nurse practitioner.