AAEM Open Letter to AMA: Where is the Public Campaign Advocating for Physicians?

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Dear Dr. Harris and AMA Board of Directors:

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association (AAEM/RSA), along with the AAEM, works tirelessly to advocate for the rights of emergency medicine physicians and physicians-in-training. As one of the largest emergency medicine resident organizations, RSA along with AAEM have major concerns regarding the recent advertising by nurse practitioners advocating for their independent practice.

As I’m sure you will have seen, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) has put forth a significant public campaign challenging physician education and compassion with slogans such as “brain of a doctor, heart of a nurse” going so far as airing commercials recommending patients actively choose a nurse practitioner over a physician for one’s health care. The AANP suggests that this care is equivalent or better than that of a physician.
Further, we are consistently seeing legislation pop up around the country pushing for the independent practice of NPs and other midlevel providers, and our organizations have thus far been working independently to gather members in grassroots-style campaigns to combat these bills. While we believe in the power of our members, we need the AMA, as the single largest voice of all physicians, to step up and notably increase their efforts against these dishonest and destructive campaigns by the AANP.

Right now, the only voice being heard publicly by patients is that of the nurse practitioners. A unified public campaign in support of physician-led care from the AMA is critical to ensure the protection of patient safety. NPs and other midlevel providers do not have the training required to sufficiently care for patients independently, only trained and board certified physicians do. With the guidance of its members, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) recently updated their position statement to state that the role of nurse practitioners and other midlevel providers is one that should be supervised as members of the patient care team. We strongly defend this statement.

We at the AAEM/RSA, representing thousands of our resident and future physicians, along with AAEM, with an even larger membership of attending physicians, urge the AMA to lead a sizable public endeavor, including:
  1. Introducing a PR campaign that advocates for physician-led care and educates the public of the discrepancies in nurse practitioner care
  2. Increasing resources on state-level legislative operations that combat independent practice bills introduced by midlevel providers
These efforts should be a priority for the AMA. Waiting for the complete devaluation of our medical degrees and the resulting significant harm to our patients’ safety as they actively pursue less capable “providers” is not acceptable. We must work together to directly combat this pressing issue in order to protect our profession, our future physicians, and most importantly our patients.

Sincerely,

Haig Aintablian, MD
President, AAEM/RSA

David A. Farcy, MD FAAEM FCCM
President, AAEM


Members don't see this ad.
 
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The AMA leadership will require spinal transplants before any of this can happen...
 
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Members don't see this ad :)
AANP responded quickly:

 
I can't fathom why any Emergency Physician with a modicum of self interest would consider ACEP as holding the interests of any group other than CMGs. AAEM is the only professional organization worth supporting from an idealistic standpoint.
 
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AANP responded quickly:


Their response utterly a stream of consciousness. They basically end on the position of only providing care to US citizens. No matter your political leanings, I bet no one in their camp even considered that such a comment might be divisive.
 
I think the ideal healthcare provider strives to have the heart of a nurse, brain of a physician, kidney of a pharmacist, liver of an administrator, spleen of a respiratory therapist, and lungs of a paramedic. But you can't collect them all too close together time-wise, or even in the same city. The FBI starts to get suspicious.
 
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Their response utterly a stream of consciousness. They basically end on the position of only providing care to US citizens. No matter your political leanings, I bet no one in their camp even considered that such a comment might be divisive.
Ah. Didn't even catch that about the citizens.

I took it in a different direction, googled AANP --> AANP twitter and found a mass of blatant attacks on physicians and frankly misleading statements, all riddled with #NPsLead. Multiple people (including the official response) mentioned many many many, some quoting 100's, of studies saying that care is equivalent. I haven't been able to locate these studies, but would sincerely love to get my hands on them to see if the results back up their claims.

Edit: Found the articles: Quality of Nurse Practitioner Practice
 
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pathetic.

All those physicians that support these MLP are to thank.
My generation is seriously screwed.
 
Whenever I think about coughing up the money for AAEM, I feel like I’m voting in the presidential election for a third party. Just don’t see how their membership base can get big enough to challenge ACEP in the next 5-10 years, much less my lifetime.
 
"The study finds NPs provide health education to patients more frequently than physicians."
Whenever I think about coughing up the money for AAEM, I feel like I’m voting in the presidential election for a third party. Just don’t see how their membership base can get big enough to challenge ACEP in the next 5-10 years, much less my lifetime.

It looks like AAEM gets a lot of support on the emdocs page and I've typically seen positive responses here when AAEM releases a new position statement. You don't need to be big to be impactful...just look at this autisotypal swedish girl lol
 
Part of me feels current residents and younger attendings may still enjoy some of the good aspects of being a physician. Anyone earlier in training med school or premed should really consider being a physician. The writing is on the wall. And pretty soon even the most anti midlevel attendings will start selling out (either by lack of choice or to maintain same level of decreasing pay). Resident education is going to be horrendous soon. You can already see the teaching of residents suffering at the expense of teaching midlevels or training them to be an attendings work horse.
 
I think the ideal healthcare provider strives to have the heart of a nurse, brain of a physician, kidney of a pharmacist, liver of an administrator, spleen of a respiratory therapist, and lungs of a paramedic. But you can't collect them all too close together time-wise, or even in the same city. The FBI starts to get suspicious.
I'm halfway there
 
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It's signed


Sincerely,
Sophia L. Thomas, DNP, FNP, PNP, FAANP
AANP President



Holy s***, she's a quad practitioner, she's playing 4-D chess with me

I need to make up some post nominals to make us a quad doctor, it's the only way to compete

AlmostAnMD, MD, EDMD, TMD, EMD DDDDDDDDDDD

It's like quad damage from quake, but medical
 
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It's signed


Sincerely,
Sophia L. Thomas, DNP, FNP, PNP, FAANP
AANP President



Holy s***, she's a quad practitioner, she's playing 4-D chess with me

I need to make up some post nominals to make us a quad doctor, it's the only way to compete

AlmostAnMD, MD, EDMD, TMD, EMD DDDDDDDDDDD

It's like quad damage from quake, but medical
It somewhat reeks of insecurity, or just really bad planning/lack of creativity/variability.

What if it was John Smith, MD, FMD, FACMD, FAAMD? That would look like that guy leap frogged from Tractor Supply to Lowes to the Home Depot.
 
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