Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed an emergency bill into law amending the requirements that must be met by nurse practitioners before they gain full practice authority.
State law previously required new nurse practitioners to spend twenty-four months, or two years, practicing under the supervision of a licensed physician or supervising nurse practitioner. Alternatively, nurse practitioners could spend this period employed by a clinic or hospital that had a licensed physician serving as a medical director.
During the public hearing for LD 961 held in April of 2025, a representative of the Maine Nurse Practitioner Association explained that these longstanding requirements had created “barriers to those of us who want to innovate and serve our communities through nurse-led models of care.”
“If we want to address Maine’s workforce shortage, increase access to care, and support smart, evidence-based healthcare reform, we need to remove this outdated and unnecessary supervisory requirement,” the representative said.
The newly signed legislation appears to address these concerns without entirely abandoning the model of transitioning new nurse practitioners into their field.
In lieu of the now-repealed twenty-four month supervisory requirement, the State Board of Nursing will be permitted to set its own practice standards, including the amount of time that new nurse practitioners must work under the guidance of a mentor.
The State Board of Nursing must submit its recommended requirements to the Legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services (HCIFS) Committee by March 15, 2026.
Until May 1, 2026, the State Board of Nursing is not permitted to adopt rules pertaining to practice standards for certified nurse practitioners. Rules adopted by the Board will be considered routine technical and therefore will not be subject to Legislative approval.
The original version of this bill, sponsored by Rep. Kristi Mathieson (D-Kittery), only sought to repeal the 24-month supervisory period, but the measure was later unanimously amended by the HCIFS Committee.
Both the original and amended version of the bill contained an emergency designation, allowing the changes are able to take immediate effect without being subject to the typical 90-day waiting period after the Legislature adjourns for the session.
Unlike most legislation, emergency bills require support from at least two-thirds of both the House and Senate in order to be approved.
Because lawmakers in both chambers accepted the Committee’s Ought to Pass as Amended report without taking roll call votes, LD 961 was deemed to have met this threshold.
Gov. Mills signed this bill into law on Tuesday, February 17, 2026.
Maybe if Janet would not have mandated an injection that neither prevented infection or prevented transmission of a virus that had an average mortality age of 81 years (older than average US life expectancy) and unknown and never reported number of Maine’s health care professionals wouldn’t have quit the profession.
Sadly too few citizens appreciate the irreparable damage Mills did to Mainer’s quality of healthcare.