A Nurse Practitioner's View

Here is another positive view of NP guided care specifically in New York. Of course, it is not without the organized medicine tagline of playing the "quality of care" card under the guise of protecting patients. However, we know that retrospective chart reviews (the current requirement in NY and in many other states) is not about quality of care. In fact, peer chart review should be a requirement for all clinicians. Every professional should engage in ongoing chart reviews (I actually prefer benchmarking and looking at actual data/outcomes against versus simply reviewing a chart). I just don't understand the constant undertones that NPs are prone to making mistakes or will "miss something" and that having a collaborating physician review the chart 3 months later somehow will "ensure quality." NPs see thousands of patients every day and we have proved and will continue to do so that we provide quality evidence-based care. And now to the video...

Wonderful job by Dr. Apold, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Nurse Practitioner Association, New York State ( The NPA ). Dr. Motta of the Massachusetts Medical Society also did a good job for making the case for fully utilizing NPs in the health care system and couldn't give any evidence-based reasons not to.

Maggie Mahar writes a wonderful column, " The Battle over Letting Nurse Practitioners Provide Primary Care ." I couldn't have summed it better myself.

With the recent increased media attention regarding nurse practitioner practice, I've noticed many inconsistencies and misconceptions in the media. Here are some of my own clarifying points: Nurse Practitioner practice is not brand new. The profession has been around since the mid 1960's. Therefore, all of these intimations that we are doing something (or looking to do something) new is inaccurate. There is a 40-year history of NP practice. NPs are not individuals who one day arbitrarily started writing prescriptions. There is a standardized education , training, licensure, and certification process that allows us to perform in that capacity. There are differences in each State practice act that sets the standard for what we can (and can't) do in each state. Note that the majority of State acts have these regulations that haven't been updated to reflect current education and training. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree is often linked to these conversations but

U.S. World News & Reports' Dr. Bernadine Healy gets it. She serves as their health editor and her latest column, The New Doctors in the House , is one of the most objectively and frankly written that I've seen that describes NPs filling the gaping holes in primary care. Check it out and tell me what you think.

The interwebs are abuzz with the latest AP article, Doc deficit? Nurses' role may may grow in 28 states . The article is pretty well balanced and has views from patients, nurse practitioners and our physician colleagues. There is a sense and some from the medical community imply that NPs are trying to expand scope of practice. I think that is a fairly short-sided and inaccurate view of what is going on at the state level. Most of the collaboration and supervisory regulations were written when the profession was brand new, is not based on any evidence, and does nothing to improve the quality of care as they are retrospective in nature. Removing statutory collaboration or supervision would not change how NPs are educated or trained. It would however, increase access to more providers. Each day I see how breakdowns in communication and how ill-planned initiatives negatively impact patient care. This has little to do with the knowledge base of the providers rather than not knowing h

Here in New York, the month of April is proclaimed by the governor as Nurse Practitioner Month . This is a noble attempt to recognize the work and care that the 13,000 or so Nurse Practitioners do every day in New York. I'm curious if other states have such proclamations or if anything is done on the state level to recognize NPs . Please post any information relevant to your state and I'd be happy to list the data in a table. And to my fellow New York Nurse Practitioners (and NPs all over), Happy Nurse Practitioner Month!

There have been quite a few new NP student/NP blogs that have recently sprung up and I highly recommend that you check them out. Over the last few years, there has been a lack of NP representation in the blogosphere (other than a handful of NP authored blogs). There are plenty of well written physician and RN blogs in existence so it is nice to hear the stories, messages and advice from the NP perspective. I try to keep my blogroll on the right hand side of this page updated with new and timely blogs. Here are just a few to check out: Laura blogs over at Ask the Nurse Practitioner, http://askthenp.blogspot.com/ , and gives patient-centric answers to some common questions and sets the record straight on some myths health myths. Jeff blogs at NP Health Care - Nurse Practitioner Owned and Operated Practice, http://nphealthcare.blogspot.com/ , and shares his (seemingly frustrating) instances of owning his own NP practice in Texas. FNP Student blogs at Triumphs and Tribulations of a Student