Efforts to ensure constituents primary care garners recognition.
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Texas Representative Rob Orr (R-Burleson) was recognized by the Texas Nurse Practitioners Inc. (TNP) with the 2010 Texas NP Advocate Award. Representative Orrs Award acknowledges his innovative & visionary efforts on behalf of NPs by introducing language to remove unnecessary practice restrictions experienced by Texas NPs.
Representative Orrs business acumen and research recognized that by removing limitations on NPs practice Texans will have access to readily available quality health care. TNP honored Representative Orr for his tireless efforts in 2007 and 2009 on behalf of health care consumers and NPs at the TNP Conference on September 11 2010 in San Antonio.
The State of Texas faces a severe shortage of primary care physicians a problem that will only increase as the state implements rapidly approaching federal healthcare legislation. Approximately 90 percent of Texas rural counties are designated in whole or in part as medically underserved.
Twenty five Texas counties have no physician services offered. Nearly 13 percent of Texans have no access to a primary care provider. Nurse Practitioners with extensive education and appropriate training actively seek to be a part of Texas solution to the dramatic growth in healthcare delivery needs.
Representative Orr is relentless in advocating for greater patient access to convenient affordable quality health care. Four decades of evidence reflect the onerous limits placed upon NPs and this does little to expedite patient health safety and welfare" said Alison Mitchell RN ACNP TNP outgoing President. By removing unnecessary mandates such as physician delegation and arbitrary supervisory requirements NPs could efficiently increase primary care access for medically underserved Texans."
The past two legislative sessions Representative Orr filed bills to remove the red tape on prescriptive authority for NPs that create wasted man hours increased costs and inefficiency in the health care system" said Sandy McCoy RN ANP TNP in-coming President.
NPs are educated to provide primary care and should be able to practice in Texas to the full extent of their education and national certification as they do in 35 other states and the District of Columbia."
Representative Orr is serving his third term in the Texas House of Representatives representing District 58 (Johnson and Bosque Counties). Rep. Orr currently serves on the following House Committees: Business and Industry Land and Resource Management and Local and Consent Calendars. Speaker Joe Straus also named Rep. Orr to the House Select Committee on Government Efficiency and Accountability and the Steering Committee of the House Research Organization.
Rep. Orr is the Broker/Owner of Orr & Associates Real Estate in Burleson. He and his wife Pam have five children and five grandchildren and loves Texas college football.
About TNP
Chartered in 1989 the mission of Texas Nurse Practitioners is to promote the professional excellence of nurse practitioners and to support quality healthcare through leadership education and advocacy." More than 8100 nurse practitioners across Texas provide invaluable services performing physical examinations providing preventive health care and health education diagnosing and prescribing medication to treat common illnesses and helping patients manage chronic and acute illness.
