Nurse practitioners have years of training and clinical experience, but they're not allowed to work in California without a doctor's supervision.
A measure to change that is moving through the California Legislature. Senate Bill 323 has been approved by the Senate and is now in the Assembly.
"It's not a radical idea," said Donna Emanuele, president of the California Nurse Practitioners Association. "Twenty-one other states allow NPs to work without physician oversight."
The California Medial Association said that nurse practitioners don't have adequate training to diagnose and treat patients independently. Shelley Hawkins, director of advanced nurse practice programs at the University of San Diego, disagrees.
"Nurse practitioners are highly skilled in the assessment, diagnosis, and management of chronic and acute illnesses," Hawkins said.
According to a report from the Institute of Medicine, nurse practitioners provide the same quality of care as doctors.
California has 18,000 licensed nurse practitioners.
