A Nurse Practitioner's View

A lot of nurse practitioners are finding my blog through searches regarding opening up a private practice from this January blog post . (I refuse to use the word independent since no clinician practices within a vacuum and requires multidisciplinary support to care for the whole patient). I happen to have a dear friend and colleague,  Dr. Joy Elwell, FNP, DNP , who has her own private practice. I asked her a few questions regarding her experience and she was gracious enough to sit down and answer them for me and my readers.  1. Why did you decide to open your own practice?  Well, first, my experience was a bit unique, since I had my own practice within an institution, i.e. I worked for an institution and was able to see my own patients at that site. I decided to leave and open a free-standing practice in the community because at this point in my career, I believed I could serve the community better by being self-employed. I also believed that I would have...

Here is a well written article from today's Tennessean about Nurse Practitioners filling key rolls in primary care. To no one's surprise, The Tennessee Medical Association opposes this and even wants to add more barriers to nurse practitioner practice and therefore block access to affordable, high-quality care. They even find a way to throw retail clinics in the mix. My question is why do they feel a need to impose stricter limits on NP practice? Are there studies to show that NP-practice is unsafe or not as good as physician-practice? In fact, studies show the contrary. I like to think of myself as a person of proof. If you can show me other than anecdotal evidence, that NP practice needs limits rather than autonomy, I'd welcome the proof. I also don't want this to be a nurse practitioner vs. physician rant. We are all members of the healthcare team and need each other to collaborate and critically think when caring for patients. I certainly can't do it all by my...