Bill mandating child abuse education for health providers rejected by New Hampshire House
House Bill 493 would've required physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants treating patients age 18 or younger to complete child abuse and neglect education. (Getty Images)
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted, 193-177, Thursday to kill a bipartisan proposal aimed at strengthening child abuse and neglect training among medical providers.
Rep. Carol McGuire, an Epsom Republican, called the bill 'a very well-meaning bill that is totally impossible to implement' and 'unnecessary.'
House Bill 493, sponsored by Concord Democrat Rep. Gabby Grossman, would've required physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants treating patients age 18 or younger to complete child abuse and neglect education. That education would've had to be at least one hour, and be accredited and recognized by the New Hampshire chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics as addressing the necessary subject matter. The bill was amended since it was first introduced.
McGuire took issue with the fact that the bill has the Board of Medicine mandating the training for nurse practitioners, who are governed by the Board of Nursing. She also noted that the Board of Medicine and Board of Nursing can both already require this training themselves, and she said she's heard from the employers of doctors and nurse practitioners who say they already often require their employees to do this type of training. She pointed out that a version of the training has already been made available for free online — by HB 493's sponsors — that providers can decide to do on their own.
Still, supporters wanted the training mandated and didn't want to wait on the boards or employers of providers.
'This bill is the result of findings that include that there are New Hampshire children that have been abused or neglected but have been missed or not reported by New Hampshire health providers with tragic outcomes,' one of the bill's supporters, Derry Republican Rep. Jodi Nelson, said. 'And that voluntary training in identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect has been made available to New Hampshire health care providers but very few have enrolled.'
Nelson said she'd heard stories of infants arriving at the hospital with atypical bruises and debilitating disabilities that weren't reported to the authorities at the Division for Children, Youth, and Families. She said the issue 'isn't New Hampshire specific; it's a problem throughout the U.S.'
This isn't the first time lawmakers have tried to enact this rule. In 2024, House Bill 1590, a similar piece of legislation, was introduced in the House but failed to become law. It referred the bill to interim study, and as a result, lawmakers brought forth HB 493 in 2025, an altered version of the previous attempt.
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