Introduced by Sen. Joseph M. Mendiola, Covenant-Tinian, S.B. 16-44, has already been transmitted to the House of Representatives.
The CNMI currently has six nurse practitioners or advanced practice registered nurses.
Three of them work at the Commonwealth Health Center, two at the Southern Clinic in San Antonio and one has moved to a private clinic.
Gayline Blau, who works at CHC’s Women’s Clinic, said they can examine patients and perform pre-natal care.
They can also prescribe simple antibiotics and birth control medicines but under the supervision of doctors.
CHC has obstetrician-gynecologists who supervise the advanced nurse practitioners, who cannot prescribe narcotic medicines.
Since advanced practice registered nurses also hold degrees, Mendiola wants them to attend independently to patients, and serve as “alternative health care providers.”
In its report recommending the bill’s passage, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee cited the difficulty of recruiting physicians and the lack of staff at the hospital and other health centers in the CNMI.
The report said lawmakers have received testimony about diminishing access of the patients to health care services.
When a doctor goes on vacation or abruptly leaves, which has happened many times, health care is severely disrupted, the report stated.
The availability of professionally trained and educated local nurse practitioners will improve access to quality health care services if the current restrictions are relaxed, the report added.
Blau got her degree from the Los Angeles-Harbor College and has spent a considerable length of time treating patients “as a whole, unlike physicians who look only at a patient’s specific health problem.”
She believes that giving them autonomy will help address the lack of doctors at CHC. Nurse practitioners will cost the government less in terms of salaries, she added.
She said the salary of one physician is equivalent to the salaries of two advanced nurse practitioners.
Blau said they should be treated as mid-level health providers — higher than other nurses.
But if the patient’s problem is beyond their capability, Blau said they will refer him or her to a physician.
