Texas suffers from a shortage of primary care providers and overly-restrictive scope of practice laws for nurses. It's time to change both.
Scope of Practice
In November 2013, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez launched a campaign to recruit nurse practitioners (NPs) to her state as part of an effort to deal with a shortage of primary care physicians. In New Mexico, NPs are allowed independent practice and prescriptive authority; Gov. Martinez highlighted neighboring states with more restrictive scope of practice...