Nurses, Nursing

Plain English Breakdown

The official bill summary and text do not provide information on potential consequences of non-response to the survey or how collected data will be utilized beyond legislative committees.

Nurse Practitioner Survey Act

This bill requires Tennessee's Board of Nursing to create an annual survey for nurse practitioners and submit reports based on the collected data.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the Board of Nursing to develop a survey within 90 days after the effective date, asking nurse practitioners about their specialty, collaborating physicians' specialties, practice locations, and physician presence at those sites.
• Defines 'specialty' for both nurse practitioners and physicians in relation to national certifications or board certifications.
• Requires the Board of Nursing to send the survey annually by email to nurse practitioners who have opted-in, with quarterly reminders if needed.
• Requires the Board of Nursing to submit an annual report containing aggregated data from the surveys to legislative committees dealing with health matters.

Who It Names or Affects

• Nurse practitioners who have been issued a certificate of fitness by the board
• Collaborating physicians working with nurse practitioners

Terms To Know

specialty

A specific area of study in nursing or medicine that leads to national or board certification.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if nurse practitioners do not respond to the survey.
• It is unclear how the data collected will be used beyond informing legislative committees.

Official Summary Text

ON MARCH 31, 2025, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 332, AS AMENDED.

AMENDMENT #1 rewrites the bill to, instead, make the following revisions to present law:



Requires the board of nursing ("board"),
no later than 90 days after the effective date of th
e bill
,
to
develop a survey to collect the following information from nurse practitioners who have been issued a certificate of fitness from the board:
(i)
the specialty in which the nurse practitioner practices;

(ii) the specialty practiced by each of the nurse practitioner's collaborating physicians;

(iii) the physical address of the nurse practitioner's primary practice location;

(iv) the physical address of the primary practice location of each collaborating physician; and

(v) how many days per week each collaborating physician is on-site with the nurse practitioner at the same practice site.



Defines, for purposes of this amendment,
"specialty"
: (i) a
s the term relates to a nurse practitioner, an area of the study of nursing completed by a nurse practitioner that leads to a national specialty certification by an organization recognized by the board of nursing; and
(ii) a
s the term relates to a physician, an area of the study of medicine completed by a physician that leads to board certification by a board approved by the American Board of Medical Specialties.



Requires the board to
send the survey annually to each nurse practitioner who has been issued a certificate of fitness by the board who has opted to receive email communications. The board
must
send reminder communications no less than quarterly to nurse practitioners who have been contacted but have not completed the survey, and
to
include the survey, a website link to the survey, or information on how to complete the survey in such communications. The board may send the survey by electronic means.



Requires the board, on
or before December 31 of each year,
to
submit a report to the chair
s
of
legislative committees
with jurisdiction over health-related matters containing aggregated, de-identified data on the following:
(i) s
tatistics on the number and percentage of nurse practitioners who responded to the survey;

(ii) the percentage of nurse practitioners who reported having a collaborating physician in the same specialty;

(iii) the percentage of collaborating physicians who are on-site with nurse practitioners full time, and for those not on-site full time, the average number of days per week the collaborating physician is on-site; and

(iv) such other statistics that the board may deem to be useful in informing the general assembly on the collaborating relationship between physicians and nurse practitioners who practice a specialty.



Requires the board to
include in the report any data collected on or before December 1 of each year.



Authorizes the
board
to
publish and deliver the report by electronic means.

Current Bill Text

HOUSE BILL 203
By Terry

SENATE BILL 332
By Crowe

SB0332
001294
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4;
Title 8; Title 14; Title 29; Title 33; Title 37; Title 39;
Title 53; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71, relative to
health care.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-1-303(b), is amended by deleting
"annual report to the governor and" and substituting "annual report to the governor, the
legislative librarian, and the".
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.