Live in New Jersey? Urge Gov Christie to sign S1152 / A1319 to Allow APN...

Thanks to all who responded to the call to action, and to our leaders and lobbyists, S1152 passed the Senate floor unanimously 40-ZERO !

This bill is politically important to us as we inch forward toward full practice authority. As amended, an APN may complete the death certification if (1) no collaborating physician is available to doso and (2) the APN is the patient's primary caregiver. A compromise, for sure, but a step forward.

You can read The Bill Here:

SO now our biggest challenge. Take the last step with us to

Call and / or email THE GOVERNOR!

Ask him to sign S1152/A1319

(Hint: Click on Topic "Health" then Subtopic "Family Health Nutrition and be sure to click all boxes. It's easiest to create your message elsewhere, then cut and paste to the fields in the site.)

Use some variation preferably in your own words of the first paragraph below plus one or two points. If you have direct experience with this situation, personal anecdotes are most powerful. Otherwise, the bullets are fine. BTW, do not confuse certifying death with pronouncement. All nurses are allowed by law to pronounce death.

S1152/A1319 would permit attending advanced practice nurses to determine cause of death and execute death certification of a patient if nurse is patient's primary caregiver and if no collaborating physician is available to do so. The legislation will give Advanced Practice Nurses the authority and responsibility to complete death certificates in the same manner as physicians under specific circumstances ensuring the delivery of appropriate and medically-accurate postmortem care.

• Advanced Practice Nurses are registered nurses who have advanced education and clinical preparation to provide primary care, diagnose and treat acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of specialties. Under current law, they are empowered to pronounce death, ascertain the case of death and provide the medical information required by the death certificate, but by law, they are not authorized to sign the death certificate.
• Advanced Practice Nurses are often the last caregiver in attendance when a patient dies. If the state deems them qualified to diagnose and treat a person while they are living, there is no logical reason for denying these skilled health care professionals from completing a certificate of death.
• Advanced Practice Nurses are authorized to sign death certificates in 27 States including NY, CT, PA, DE, MD, DC RI, MA, VT.
• The bill recognizes the important service Advanced Practice Nurses provide to the public. In many instances, they serve as the primary care provider and are often the most accessible at the time of their patient's death. This is especially true in communities where there is a shortage of physicians. Since death certificates must be signed within a specific period of time after death, Advanced Practice Nurses would be able to facilitate the delivery of appropriate and timely postmortem care and help ease the impact of death on a patient's family.
• Allowing Advanced Practice Nurses to sign death certificates, including the cause of death section, should strengthen the accuracy of information required by the state and federal government to guide public health efforts.
• The bill will help reduce costs by avoiding unnecessary referral to doctors and/or unnecessary autopsies while remaining sensitive and responsive to the needs of families and loved ones at the time of death.

You can also contact Governor Christie by writing to the Office of the Governor, P.O. Box 001, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0001 or by calling (609) 777-2500

If you have any questions, please contact me or Grace at this email address or you can call me at 908 625 2128.

Suzanne and Grace

PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR NETWORK, including appropriate patients, family and friends.