When it comes to treating opioid addiction, most health care experts say nurses have a critical role to play in prescribing the lifesaving medication buprenorphine.
Buprenorphine can be prescribed by both doctors and nurses who have taken specific training and received a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
A study published in the medical journal JAMA in April found that states without a physician-oversight requirement to prescribe buprenorphine have more nurses getting licensed to distribute the medication — 75% more than nurse practitioners in states with the restriction.
California is the only Western state with this doctor supervision requirement as it applies to buprenorphine.
Assemblyman Jim Wood authored a bill that would authorize a nationally certified nurse practitioner to provide specific medical services without physician oversight, including prescribing buprenorphine.
"We’ve had primary care shortages, and over the last seven or eight years it’s actually gotten worse," Wood said.
He sees nurse practitioners as an important way to fill that gap: "We need that workforce."
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