STAND. COM. REP. NO 621

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 735

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 735, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NURSES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to, beginning with the July 1, 2017, licensing biennium, require licensed registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to submit evidence of completed continuing competency requirements prior to the renewal of the license.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Board of Nursing; Hawaii State Center for Nursing; Hawaii Medical Association; University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene; Straub Clinic and Hospital; Wilcox Memorial Hospital; Pali Momi Medical Center; Kapiolani Medical Center; Hawaii Pacific Health; and five individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that nurses are critical to the successful implementation of health care reform in Hawaii.  Continuing competency plays a significant role in nursing professionals' ongoing development and for the betterment of the patients they serve.  Your Committee further finds that the Hawaii State Center for Nursing's Continuing Education Joint Advisory Committee determined that a continuing competency program, including self-assessment, implementation of a personal learning plan, continuing education, and subsequent reassessment, was preferable to a simple continuing education program.  This measure benefits licensed registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and their patients by requiring completion of continuing competency requirements prior to any application for license renewal, restoration, or reinstatement.

 

     Your Committee notes that certain amendments are necessary to ensure that the Board of Nursing is able to fully implement the continuing competency program proposed by this measure.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that each registered nurse and practical nurse licensee shall complete one of the learning activity options for continuing competency purposes, rather than thirty contact hours, which only pertain to the continuing education learning activity;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that licensed practical nurses, in addition to registered nurses, who maintain current national certification may be exempt from the continuing competency requirements;

 

     (3)  Clarifying the modified learning activity options a new nursing program graduate may complete in order to meet the continuing competency requirements;

 

     (4)  Clarifying that a nurse licensee shall complete one of the nursing activity options, rather than a combination of learning activity options, for continued competency purposes;

 

     (5)  Clarifying certain learning activity options, including participation as a preceptor, completion of a nursing research project that is an institution review board project, completion of an evidence-based practice project that has been preapproved by the Board of Nursing, and development and conducting of a nursing education presentation for contact hours of actual organized instruction that qualifies as continuing education; and

 

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 735, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 735, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

 

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair