In September 2017, the Governor of Illinois signed into law a bill that goes into effect January 21^st, 2018, which allows nurse practitioners to have full practice authority in that State.  The law finally passed because of cooperation from the Medical Association and it’s been a long time coming.  Now, qualified nurse practitioners in Illinois with at least 4,000 hours of nursing and 250 hours of continued training can do everything under the scope of practice without the supervision or collaboration of a physician.

Qualified nurse practitioners now can diagnose, prescribe meds and treat patients with chronic conditions.  This will help greatly as much of Illinois is rural and in some areas physicians could be few and far in between.

It is exciting that we now have a new State that recognizes nurse practitioners with full practice authority.  I’m hoping we can learn from Illinois’ experience to get this law passed elsewhere so that nurse practitioners can have full practice authority anywhere in the country.

Are you a nurse practitioner?  Are you constrained by collaborative practice agreement?  What is your State doing to move toward full practice authority?  I’d love to hear your thoughts below.