I appreciate the opportunity to make public comment to the Boards of Medicine and Nursing promulgation of regulations to implement HB793.  I encourage the Boards to hold true to the intent of the General Assembly and the Governor in their passage of this legislation.  Because of this legislation Nurse Practitioners are enabled to practice more independently and thus the citizens of the Commonwealth have increased access to health care providers.  As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 43 years of clinical practice in a more rural area of Virginia I am familiar with the difficulty my clients experienced gaining access to Psychiatrist for their medication needs.  Nurse Practitioners are more widely distributed across the Commonwealth and have prescribing authority.  This legislation is intended to extend the delivery of health care services and it is my hope that the Boards do not promulgate regulations that make any narrow interpretation of the legislation that in any manner inhibits this extension of service delivery.