Governor Kelly signs APRN legislation into Law!

KAPN is overwhelmingly proud to announce that Governor Kelly signed HB 2279 today! We can now officially say we crossed the finish line! The Governor’s office released a tweet stating that “the bill will allow Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to practice independently in Kansas and it will expand health care access in rural areas.”

KAPN members are, of course, celebrating today! We are also grateful for so many who contributed time, resources, hours of work, provided financial backing, organized conferences,  spoke at events, and talked to patients and businesses. We are also appreciative of every APRN who supported this legislation through the tough times. We all admit there were times when we thought we should give up, but we always came back to the work we had accomplished and we knew we never wanted to discard the progress made. We knew it was the right issue to fight for.

Please extend your appreciation to the supportive legislators who stood by this bill even when confronted with resistance. There are organizations that deserve gold medals for their support, namely Kansas Association of Nurse Anesthetists, (KANA) and Kansas Affiliate of Certified Nurse Midwives as well as KSNA, AANP, NCSBN and Kansas Board of Nursing. The non-nursing organizations including Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, AARP, Cerner, Amazon, and Walmart gave valuable time, resources, lobbyists and made legislative contacts. Legislators heard the message from consumers about the importance of increasing access to health care in Kansas and decreasing health care costs, giving more palpable credence to our issue.

We have to say thank you to the team of lobbyists. They made this happen because of their expertise and knowledge about politics and the players.

Thank you, KAPN members, for your dedication and loyalty to this organization. Your support made this possible. Last, but certainly not least, extend a gesture of appreciation to family members who also supported each of us while we were doing this work. A family gives up some things so we can work and they give emotional support when its needed most.

It is a momentous and historic day for Nursing in Kansas! We are the 26th state with APRN Full Practice Authority!