Gov. Dave Heineman says he vetoed a nurse practitioner bill passed unanimously by the Unicameral, because it didn’t require enough training.
LB 916 would have eliminated a requirement that nurse practitioners have written agreements with doctors.
Heineman says the bill’s provision that nurse practitioners have at least 2,000 hours of supervised practice wasn’t enough.
“A doctor, normally, in order to do all the work expected of them at a high quality level is about 10,000 hours or five years and so after talking with the Chief Medical Officer I concluded that at least 4,000 hours would have been a better compromise and had that been in the bill I would have signed it into law,” according to Heineman.
Heineman says he talked at length with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Acierno of Omaha before deciding to reject the bill.
The Unicameral sent 12 bills to the governor on the last day of the legislative session. The governor signed all by LB 916.
Since the Unicameral has adjourned for the year, it cannot consider an override attempt of the veto.