OBNE Public Meeting, April 6

Today I headed over to the public meeting of OBNE (the Oregon Board of Naturopathic Examiners). A few of the highlights are listed below, and minutes to this (and all other public meetings) can be found at http://www.oregon.gov/OBNE/BOARD.shtml

I. Legislative Updates: Thinking the meeting started later I missed the legislative update. However, SB 327 which "modernizes" the ND formulary was being voted on in the Senate today and will likely go to the house soon. Make sure to contact your representative if you have an opinion about this bill, or even better, if you have personal experience with the formulary. Read the text of the bill here if you are interested. More comments from Holistic Health Law to come.

II. To increase or not to increase ND CME hour requirements... That is the question.
In order to set the national bar for ND quality the board is considering raising the number of required CE hours from 25 to 30 or 35. This discussion involved the weighing of many factors and all agreed that the issue was not urgent and could be brought up at the next meeting on June 1, 2009. A few of the major considerations are improving the ethics education of NDs, how to make sure new practitioners can afford to get the credits, the administrative costs of approving CE courses, and the ability of NDs to take increased hours in on-line CE courses. As the meetings are public after 10:30 am or so anyone may come to voice his or her opinion on the matter. Emails can also be sent to the board to communicate an opinion.

III. Miscellaneous scope of practice issues:
a) Vasectomies will likely be considered within the scope of an NDs practice because they should be considered minor surgery.

b) Lipolysis will also likely be considered within the scope of an NDs practice because it is likewise considered a minor surgery.

c) Assisted suicide is NOT within an NDs scope of practice or even close.

d) Employee-provided IV therapy: An ND raised the question of whether or not s/he can hire and train employees to administer IV therapy and kelation therapy. The board asserts that so long as the employee is under "direct supervision" this is permitted. "Direct Supervision" is defined by OAR 850-010-0005 (3). ”Direct Supervision” means that a licensed Naturopathic physician is physically present in the clinic, is monitoring and directly responsible for activities of supervised person, and is available to intervene if necessary.

e) More investigation is required to address two additional questions regarding, first, POLST, and second, ND provision of special education assessment.

The meeting ended approximately 1:30 pm.