I've been employed in adult/geriatric care for over 18 years as an APN. The patient care teams I've collaborated with have been respectful of nursing philosophy and the professionlism of care experienced APN's bring to the health care industry. Medical schools have been embracing medical student collaboration and respect of APN colleagues, for over a decade. It is timely for the full scope of medical community and nursing profession grant independent practice to experienced Advance Nurse Practitioners.

It is requested that the Joint Boards recognize ANPs have unique skills and expertise, complimentary to the physician and other diverse members on the patient care team. Therefore it is reasonable to expect there will be overlap of the various consulting physician's area of practice and the ANP's. Our expertise and clinical experience is validated by our licensure and certification. The Veteran's administration as well as 23 other states recognize practice and licensure laws providing for all nurse practitioners to evaluate patients, diagnose, order and interpret diagnostic tests, initiate and manage treatments—including prescribing medications and controlled substances—under the exclusive licensure authority of the state board of nursing.

We work in many settings with MDs, DOs and DPMs to illustrate this point. A broad interpretation of basic internal medicine education of any specialist physician is considered sufficient to meet the requirement for practice in the medical profession for a patient population. The practice area of the ANP licensed and certified by our national board meets requirements to practice within our profession. It is timely for the Commonwealth of Virginia to retire barriers to patient choices and practice restrictions. I applaud promulgation of emergency regulations to implement HB 793. This legistative is timely and well needed.