HOUSE FILE 2088

BY  STECKMAN, WESSEL-KROESCHELL, M. SMITH, HANSON, ABDUL-SAMAD, WITTNEBEN, WINCKLER, HUNTER, KEARNS, and SWEENEY

A BILL FOR

An Act authorizing registered nurses and physician assistants to order respiratory therapy.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 148C.4, subsection 1, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   1.  A physician assistant may perform medical services when the services are rendered under the supervision of a physician. A physician assistant student may perform medical services when the services are rendered within the scope of an approved program. For the purposes of this section, “medical services when the services are rendered under the supervision of a physician” includes making:
   a.  Making
 
a pronouncement of death for a patient whose death is anticipated if the death occurs in a licensed hospital, a licensed health care facility, a Medicare-certified home health agency, or a Medicare-certified hospice program or facility, with notice of the death to a physician and in accordance with the directions of a physician.
   b.  Ordering respiratory therapy.
    Sec. 2.  Section 152.1, subsection 6, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   6.  The “practice of the profession of a registered nurse” means the practice of a natural person who is licensed by the board to do all of the following:
   a.  Formulate nursing diagnosis and conduct nursing treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems through services, such as case finding, referral, health teaching, health counseling, and care provision which is supportive to or restorative of life and well-being.
   b.  Execute regimen prescribed by a physician, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant.
   c.  Supervise and teach other personnel in the performance of activities relating to nursing care.
   d.  Perform additional acts or nursing specialties which require education and training under emergency or other conditions which are recognized by the medical and nursing professions and are approved by the board as being proper to be performed by a registered nurse.

   e.  Make the pronouncement of death for a patient whose death is anticipated if the death occurs in a licensed hospital, a licensed health care facility, a Medicare-certified home health agency, a Medicare-certified hospice program or facility, an assisted living facility, or a residential care facility, with notice of the death to a physician and in accordance with any directions of a physician.
   f.  Order respiratory therapy.
   f.g.  Apply to the abilities enumerated in paragraphs “a” through “e”
 
“f” of this subsection scientific principles, including the principles of nursing skills and of biological, physical, and psychosocial sciences.
EXPLANATION
   This bill authorizes registered nurses and physician assistants to order respiratory therapy.