West Virginia HB5681: Relating to empowering qualified certified nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives to prescribe, administer, and dispense prescriptions drugs without a collaborating physician.

What the bill says

To amend and reenact §30-7-1, §30-7-4, §30-7-6b, and §30-7-15b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to registered professional nurses; providing definitions; restricting certain rules and policies; and allowing qualified certified nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives to prescribe, administer, and dispense prescriptions drugs without a collaborating physician. Article 7. registered Professional Nurses. §30-7-1. Definitions. As used in this "Board" means the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses; "Collaborative relationship" me.

From the introduced text, February 17, 2026:

A BILL to amend and reenact §30-7-1, §30-7-4, §30-7-6b, and §30-7-15b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to registered professional nurses; providing definitions; restricting certain rules and policies; and allowing qualified certified nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives to prescribe, administer, and dispense prescriptions drugs without a collaborating physician. Article 7. registered Professional Nurses. §30-7-1. Definitions. As used in this "Board" means the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses; "Collaborative relationship" means a working relationship, structured through a written agreement, in which an advanced practice registered nurse may prescribe drugs in collaboration with a qualified physician; "Direct patient care" means the provision of services to a sick, injured, mentally or physically disabled, elderly or fragile patient that requires some degree of interaction with that patient. Direct patient care may include assessment, treatment, counseling, procedures, self-care, patient education, administration of medication, and implementation of a care plan; "Practice of registered professional nursing" or "registered professional nursing" means the performance for compensation of any service requiring substantial specialized judgment and skill based on knowledge and application of principles of nursing derived from the biological, physical and social sciences, such as responsible supervision of a patient requiring skill in observation of symptoms and reactions and the accurate recording of the facts, or the supervision and teaching …