Nurse Midwives to Write Prescriptions

A law allowing certified nurse midwives with master's degrees to write prescriptions is just going into effect in Pennsylvania--the last state to grant such authority.

Gov. Ed Rendell signed the law in 2007, but the Board of Medicine just finalized regulations and will start accepting applications. Besides needing a master’s degree, certified nurse midwives must have studied and continue to study advanced pharmacology. The collaborative agreements nurse midwives are required to have with physicians must be filed with the Board of Medicine.

Vivian Lowenstein, President of the PA Association of Licensed Midwives, says the greatest benefit of this legislation is access to care for women. In the past, nurse midwives with patients who needed medication had to get a prescription from a collaborative physician or even send the patient to the physician. Lowenstein says prescriptions will be limited to midwives' scope of practice: women's needs from contraception through menopause.

Lowenstein says about 80% of nurse midwives in PA have master’s degrees.