Letter to the editor: Paleolithic views on NPs & MDs
Letter-writer Dr. Lawrence John’s Paleolithic view of nurse practitioners shocks the conscience (“Nurse practitioners & doctors,” Dec. 24, TribLIVE). I know nurse practitioner Cathy Grant, and she has a clear understanding of the boundaries between NPs and physicians (“Please, let nurse practitioners serve patients,” Dec. 8, TribLIVE).
The NPs I have worked with and who care for me share the same crystal-clear understanding. As a family physician, does John not have a surgeon or other specialist immediately available for consultation? I assume he does and isn’t professionally reckless. To suggest a conscientious NP would not do the same amounts to calumny.
Additionally, the doctor is wrong; practice agreements with physicians prove a burdensome hurdle NPs must jump if they practice in more than one facility.
Maybe the real reason John, representing the Pennsylvania Medical Society, is against NPs becoming independent providers, in fact all advanced practice nurses (anesthetist, clinical nurse specialist, nurse midwife), centers on insurance reimbursement. Thus, the focus centers on money and not the quality of patient care.
It is time for John to recognize the wheel has been invented for quite some time and we are on the threshold of safe, self-driving automobiles. Or shall we remain in the Paleolithic Age?
Rev. James Holland
West Deer
The writer is a clinical nurse specialist.
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