A Nurse Practitioner's View

Here is a great infographic on NY's recently passed Nurse Practitioners Modernization Act that summarizes the new law which takes effect on January 1, 2015 (the written regulations are still however, pending).

Check out my recent podcast interview by Barbara Phillips over at Sage Clinician. I am honored to have had the chance to discuss recent legislative developments in New York State with the passing of the Nurse Practitioners Modernization Act along with blogging, and more.  Feel free to check out it here!  

Milestone New York legislation eases practice restrictions on NPs | Nurse.com News

Lots going on for nurse practitioners in New York these days! We are very excited to have the N urse Practitiioners Modernization Act pass as part of the 2014-15 NY State Budget! This is a major step forward that eliminates the written collaborative agreement between a an experienced nurse practitioner and physician. We have been at work on this for a long time and it is an acknowledgement by stakeholders that nurse practitioners are key to increasing health care access across NY state.  Also, check out my interview at NursingSchool411.com . They had asked me some thoughtful questions and I am glad to have the opportunity to answer them!  That's all for now.....Hope everyone is well!  

Wow - I randomly checked my blog and see that it's been THREE months since I last blogged! It's not from a lack of activity going on in the nurse practitioner world but more from having far too commitments than I have time for and unfortunately, my blogging has lagged behind a bit -- ok, a lot. While clinically, I am seeing tons of patients with nasty upper respiratory infections and good ole influenza (and the New York State mandatory mask requirement for health care workers if not vaccinated) is rearing it's ugly head. Practically every day, we see more and more coverage of nurse practitioners in the mainstream media. These NPs are responding to health questions, giving advice on things from influenza vaccines to cervical cancer screening and opening up their own practices. That's not to say that the toxic and predictable vitriol against nurse practitioners has ceased though. If anything, it has been turned up even more. Yet, it's obvious that it is having less ...

The infographic below comes courtesy of Simmons School of Nursing & Health Sciences. Check the full link out at:  http://onlinenursing.simmons.edu/affordable-care-act-family-nurse-practitioners/

Encourage your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2013 Enactment of the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act of 2013 will make it possible for NPs to provide necessary services for their Medicare patients by allowing them to certify that patients under their care are eligible for home health care services. Passage of this legislation will reduce Medicare spending by eliminating duplicative services while also improving the quality and timeliness of care for the beneficiaries who require home health services. Here is the link to the Bill, H.R. 2504  -  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to ensure more timely access to home health services for Medicare beneficiaries under the Medicare program. Take Action Now

This post was written in response to the WSJs article, " Should Nurse Practitioners Be Able to Treat Patients Without Physician Oversight? " As much as some would like you to believe that this is not about turf protection, make no mistake, it is exactly about protectionism and nothing in the interest of the patient. The latest buzz words are now “team-based care” where nurse practitioners, physicians, and other members of the health care team, are working for the common goal of better health outcomes while the inefficiencies of today’s healthcare system vanish. The problem with this presumption is that there is no defined model of team-based care. So what then is team-based care? If you ask a physician what team-based care is, they would say it is where they are in charge of the team and tell what the other members to do. They hold the most hours of in-patient training and in doing so can care for every patient and every condition without anyone else telling them how...

As the case for nurse practitioners is becoming increasingly obvious across the spectrum, predictably, the turf battles are rearing their ugly heads. Here is a blatant  example  of the rhetoric and follows a formula that I am going to reveal to spare any future time wasting reading them. Refer to the physician shortage and mention "Obamacare"  State the obligatory, "nurse practitioners are valued as part of the health care team"  Point out the differences in education and training (for example, physicians have 1 billion hours of training where NPs have nothing even remotely close to that)  Make the inference that quality of care will somehow suffer because of the differences in education/training (though there is not one shred of evidence that proves this) Make sure NOT to mention anything about patient outcomes being the same or better when NPs are primary care providers If there is mention of outcome studies, be sure to highlight how they are "ol...

My apologies in advance for this post as I'm sure it is a bit all of the place. I wanted to just jot down some of my thoughts on the "nurse practitioner vs. physician debate." There has been many articles recently written about this, so here are my thoughts: (these of course are my own thoughts and not representative of my affiliations) Above all else, nurse practitioners want to practice at the "top of our licenses." That is, to our full education and training. Imagine having access to the most wonderful car in the world - that can not only take you to wherever you want to go, in great comfort and with with excellent gas mileage, but not having the keys to start it. That is the restriction of the collaborative agreement. NPs have the education and training to care for patients in their specialty. However, without a collaborative agreement with a physician, we can't use any of it. We are stuck in the proverbial parking lot without keys.  Nurse practiti...

Hello Everyone and thanks for reading my blog. It has been a while since my last post - not for a lack of topics to post about - but due to an insane schedule that I have been keeping. Here in New York, we have been through he effects of SuperStorm/Hurricane Sandy, another presidential election, and the tragedy of the unfathomable nearby Newtown Connecticut shootings. There is so much also going on in healthcare and the aforementioned happenings are also intertwined in the landscape - from emergency preparedness, state health insurance exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act, and mental health respectively. Specific to nurse practitioners, there have been numerous articles written about us (and the interesting negative commentary that always follows and isn't worth commenting on anymore). We have also seen the merger of two national nurse practitioner organizations into one large one. CMS announced that there will be increased Medicaid reimbursement for certain physici...

One of the biggest areas of frustration for students, stakeholders, and nurse practitioners are the seemingly lack of consistency among state regulations regarding NP practice. The rules in one state may not necessarily apply in the next (and even neighboring state). I have known NPs that lived near state borders, licensed in both states, yet had completely different sets of rules regarding what they can/can't do, requirements for collaboration versus autonomy and prescribing ability. Barton Associates created this free interactive tool that lets you visually compare all 50 states' (plus DC) NP scope of practice. It is ultra handy and can help one decide whether to practice in one state that is very prohibitive compared to one that offers autonomy.  There is also a push for the  APRN Consensus Model  whose aim is to have consistency among the states when it comes to regulations.    If moving out of the state isn't feasible, well, the ...

I started this blog, A Nurse Practitioner’s View, 3 years ago because there were very few health stories that even mentioned nurse practitioners as part of the health care landscape. Right before I started the blog, I would respond to other health policy articles published on the Web by writing comments to the websites – only to be subjected to baseless and factually incorrect statements. It was soon thereafter that I decided I would write my own perspective on health policy, trends, and news. I also felt it important from a credibility aspect to not blog anonymously but to put my name on it. I recall those few early blog posts that I proudly wrote and would feverishly check my blog visitor stats to see if people were reading. Well, it was a bit slow going in the beginning with about 10 – 15 readers but as they say, “if you build it, they will come.” Today, the blog enjoys hundreds of visits a day, has a Facebook following, has enabled me to be “discovered” to blog at  Onl...

It's been a busy last few months as the legislative agenda has heated up of the NP organization where I am the Chair-Elect. I have been to some fundraisers and legislative visits to try and garner support from lawmakers to sponsor and support the bill that will eliminate statutory collaboration between a physician and nurse practitioner in New York State. The bill is known as the NP Modernization Act. We have been at this for about the last 5 years and up until now, there has not been much forward movement. While we had a sponsor for the bill and many co-sponsors, it was stuck in both the Senate and Assembly 's Higher Education Committee (where all of the professions in NY state are regulated). The bill basically sat idle in these respective committees. We finally experienced a breakthrough after countless visits and grassroots efforts. The IOM Future of Nursing report absolutely helped make the case for increasing access to care as did the positive press that nurse pr...

With all the  recent  discussion on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being heard before the Supreme Court, I wanted to discuss one of the programs that was borne from the ACA. The  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid  (CMS) define Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as "... groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors." Wow, this sounds great so far, and seems to be congruent with nurse practitioner-partnered care, what could be wrong with this model? Read on. The "ACO Professional" is  defined , "...as a physician (as defined in section 1861(r)(1) of the Act) or a practitioner described in section 1842(b)(18)(C)(i) the Act (that is, a p...

I've been following plight of the Oregon Nurse Practitioners regarding reimbursement rates. It seems that back in 2009, NP reimbursement rates from insurance companies were arbitrarily cut by up to 55% for no apparent reason. An attempt to correct that was introduced in the form of legislation . While it appears that the bill itself contained some flaws, it is now destined to flounder in committee once again. The sad thing here is politics at play. Heavy lobbying from the insurance companies and from organized medicine guaranteed the bill's demise. The lobbyists relied on the "costs will go up" tagline to shoot down the bill. This is laughable. Did those who were insured costs go down when they saw a nurse practitioner? Nope. The NPs diagnosed and treated the patients as they were educated and trained to do - not from some alternative medicine crack pot cookbook. It came from recognized health care standards, procedures, and guidelines. Yet, the insurance companies...

I saw 2 notable articles in the news last week about nurse practitioner practice that I wanted to share. The first one is about two new bills introduced in Missouri  that would eliminate the collaborative practice requirement between a nurse practitioner and physician and would allow NPs to prescribe controlled substances as indicated. Missouri is one of the most restrictive states when it comes to NP practice and if this legislation passes, they will move to the forefront of of autonomy. They will have substantial opposition but the bills would allow these NPs to practice to the full extent of their training and education.  The other article is about the first nurse practitioner to practice in Bermuda . She will begin this summer and work in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. She is scheduled to be the first student to complete their NP program.  It is great to see NP practice evolve and have regulations that reflect a scope of practice that is congruent with the train...

I'm aware that many people roll their eyes at another "year in review" blog post but it's been some time since my last post here and I think it is a good way to end the year. 2011 was an important year for me professionally as I completed my DNP back in May. It was a grueling 3 years (that I mostly chronicled here on this blog) and in my mind was the right choice for me at this point in my life. I approach clinical problems and scenarios through an alternative perspective and I have really embraced this philosophy. I hope to apply some of this new wisdom to the health care system and patients alike. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, following the completion of the DNP, in the Fall, I enrolled full-time in one of the University Based Training programs that was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's HITECH Act. Technology has always been my passion and I am so interested in the integration of information technology and health - it is real...

I am posting this for a colleague who plans on writing a book about nurse practitioners.   Seeking nurse practitioners of all specialties to submit stories about the experience of being a nurse practitioner. The NP may live in any geographic area. This may include stories about the role of NPs, patients, circumstances or the health care system. Selected NPs will be confidentially interviewed and audiotaped if agree to be part of the project. Please contact mga11@caa.columbia.edu

The latest nurse practitioner study conducted at Loyola found that "...the nurse practitioner reduced ED visits by improving the continuity of care and troubleshooting problems for patients." These are the type of studies that need to be done. I am sick of the studies pitting nurse practitioners against physicians. The "us" versus "them" mentality is old, tired, and doesn't even belong in today's argument. The time has come to move past this and figure out a way to make the most out of available resources while ensuring that each profession practices to the extent of their education, training, and scope. Do we really need another study to show that NP practice is just as good or better than physicians or do NPs make more referrals or would NPs order more tests to arrive at a diagnosis? Please, this rhetoric is insulting to the entire US health care system. In my opinion, nurse practitioners are not interchangeable with physician practice. We a...