A panel of WSU College of Pharmacy students convened before the House Health Care & Wellness committee this week to show support for a bill they’re spearheading concerning services provided by health care professional students.
HB 1726 aims to address issues with the current law governing inter-professional student health care training by widening the scope of possible preceptors allowed to supervise health care student service activities. Under the current law, students are required to have a professional from their own discipline supervising them if they provide any type of health care service. In the event that preceptors are unavailable or forced to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances, students lose out on invaluable opportunities for hands-on training in their communities despite the fact that other health care service supervisors are available just outside their given fields. HB 1726 would increase opportunities for inter-professional training by allowing students in the fields of pharmacy, medicine and nursing to be supervised under certain circumstances by preceptors licensed in any of these fields so long as the students have documentation from their respective colleges showing they’ve met competency in the services being performed and also show coverage by appropriate professional liability insurance.
ASWSU Health Sciences students put a monumental amount of work into the construction of this piece of legislation. Pharmacy Students Brandy Seignemartin, Jennifer Robinson and Johanna Pantig led the production of the proposal and worked with stakeholders from Washington State Pharmacists Association, Nursing Association, Medical Association, Osteopathic Medical Association, as well as the WSU Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, and the Nursing and Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commissions to get their input on the bill and address their concerns. Stakeholders are now in full support of the bill, as is the WSU Colleges of Nursing and Medicine.
UPDATE: HB 1726 passed unanimously out of the House Health Care Committee. The bill will now move to House Rules where it will be considered for a vote on the House floor.
You can view the panel’s testimony in the video below.