Dear Joint Boards of Medicine and Nursing and Advisory Commitee,

We've established that APRNs provide safe quality healthcare and I'm thankful that Virginia has recognized this by passing legislation that makes us one step closer to FPA. When formulating regulations to implement HB793, I propose that we adopt a similar regulation to the proposed one below:

The board shall grant recognition as an advanced practice registered nurse without a practice agreement to a nurse who has: (1) A current, unencumbered license as a registered nurse in this State; (2) An unencumbered license as a registered nurse in all other states in which the nurse has a current and active license; (3) An unencumbered recognition as an advanced practice registered nurse with an equivalent of at least 5 years of physician lead collaboration in a similar field as the nurse practitioner is certified. Similar field is defined as graduate level generalized training/residency or clinical practice in the area of certification as the APRN. Five years of experience is defined as a total length of certification, by an acceptable certifying body, as an APRN to include practice among any state in the U.S. and it's territories. (4) Acquired clinical experience of sufficient depth and breadth to reflect the intended license as evidenced by meeting all of the criteria above and presents a letter of attestation from one collaborating physician during the 5 year reporting period. A letter of attestation is defined as a standardized form that outlines the APRNs length of practice, current certification, current unencumbered liscensure as an APRN and RN in the state of practice. (5) Paid the appropriate fees to issue a new liscense to reflect a registered nurse practitioner or other APRN to practice without a practice agreeement. Appropriate fees is defined as a one time free initial liscense and then a 2 year renewal to match the current renewal liscensure fees.

Thank you for your time to read this and your consideration.

Jessica Ruff, FNP-C