We champion the right of medical practitioners to earn a living and the right of patients to access the care of their choosing. Any restrictions on the right to provide or receive care should be carefully tailored to serve objective health and safety goals—not to protect entrenched interests or maintain outdated models of care.
Our mission is to secure Full Practice Authority for advanced practice nurses and other healthcare professionals, ensuring they can provide care to the full extent of their training without unnecessary regulatory burdens. This includes advocating for the elimination of mandatory supervisory and collaborative agreements that hinder patient access to high-quality care and restrict the availability of healthcare options.
Pacific Legal Foundation helps advanced practice nurses and other experienced healthcare professionals challenge unreasonable government restrictions, so they’re free to serve their communities.
Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are among the most qualified and versatile health practitioners. APRNs have education and training in a specialized medical field that allows them to diagnose and treat patients. But some states make it difficult for APRNs to practice independently, requiring what’s called a collaborative practice agreement that can force APRNs to be supervised by physicians.
Pacific Legal Foundation reviewed all state regulations and found that 13 states require a collaborative practice agreement for full practice authority, while three more states require collaborative practice agreements for prescriptive authority.
Are you an advanced practice nurse facing unreasonable regulations that hurt your ability to help patients? Submit your case to PLF and see if we can help you.
Kansas faces a real nursing shortage, and this fight proved these systems can be changed when someone refuses to accept that they can’t.
The law mandates that nurse practitioners have a “collaborative practice agreement” — a contract Markes must enter with a physician to provide care.
California nurses with doctorates do not have the right to call themselves doctors, a federal court ruled, upholding a state law that regulates what titles health professionals can use in advertisemen…
Now, some Wisconsin nurses can evaluate patients, diagnose conditions, prescribe medications, and even manage chronic diseases on their own. If you’ve ever been stuck in a waiting room, staring at a…
Nebraska mothers challenge the state’s ban on certified nurse midwives attending home births, arguing it violates their rights.
State licensing laws block telehealth access to out-of-state specialists, harming patients and raising costs.
Kansas court cleared veteran nurse Amy Siple’s record after a paperwork lapse, spurring reform to curb licensing board overreach.
PLF client Hope Lindstrom makes history with Nebraska’s first legal CNM-assisted home birth.
For Hope Lindstrom, the question of where and how to give birth is deeply personal. As a devout Christian and licensed pastor, she views childbirth as a sacred experience—one that centers her as an …
Certificate of need (CON) laws and occupational licensing pose unnecessary barriers to life-saving medical care. In a recent law review article, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys Jaimie Cavanaugh and…
Finding a great healthcare provider is like winning the lottery. And Nurse Practitioner (NP) Marcy Markes’ patients have hit the jackpot. Since 2003, Marcy has owned and operated the Columbia Allerg…
For many Missourians, access to healthcare is out of reach. Eighty percent of the state is considered a healthcare desert, with too few providers to meet the needs of local residents. Missouri ranks a…
Nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives are known as “advanced practice registered nurses” (APRNs). They’re an essential category of medical professionals who work on the frontlines of …
As a nurse in rural Colorado after World War II, Loretta Ford described herself as a lone ranger. “Whatever went on in health, I was called,” she said. “I took care of it.” Ms. Ford, who died in J…
