COLUMBUS — Certain nurses with advanced training in Ohio now can write prescriptions, making the state among the last to allow the practice.

        Certificates granting prescription authority are arriving in the mail for nurse practitioners — nurses with a master's degree and advanced training.

        The state law expanding their power to prescribe passed in 2000 and went into effect this year.

        “I don't have to leave the room, I don't have to apologize for taking so long, and I don't have to send them without a prescription and (have the doctor) call one in later,” said Susan Bowman Burpee, a nurse practitioner who works in a two-doctor practice in Columbus.

        Ms. Bowman Burpee was allowed to write prescriptions when she worked in Massachusetts, she told the Columbus Dispatch for a Saturday story.

        Ohio's nurses fought two decades for the right, over the objections of the Ohio Medical Association and others.

        “Initially, we felt it was blurring the line between the practice of nursing and the practice of medicine,” said Timothy Maglione, senior director of government relations for the group.

        All 50 states grant some degree of prescription-writing authority to advanced-practice nurses, according to the American College of Nurse Practitioners, a trade group. The category includes nurse-midwives or others who usually have master's degrees and training beyond the usual registered nurse or licensed practical nurse level.

        Ohio's law allows nurses with at least a master's degree in their field who take pharmacology courses and complete one year of “externship” training to write prescriptions for all drugs except dangerous narcotics. A state board must certify the nurses and the drugs that may be prescribed.

        Mr. Maglione said the law contains provisions ensuring that nurses work closely with doctors and prescribe drugs under strict rules and limitations.

        Ms. Bowman Burpee said the law means patients don't have to wait as long to get in. Those who might have to wait days to see a doctor for certain infections can make same-day appointments with her.

        “It frees the doctor up to do more specialized types of things, to take care of more complicated, more urgent cases,” she said.

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