AMA's Response to DNPs

[newbie04]

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Dear XXXXXXX

Nurse practitioners are valuable members of the health care team, but there are clear differences in the education and training of a physician and a nurse.

Some scope of practice expansions may be appropriate, others certainly are not. The AMA is committed to ensuring the additional years of training and experience physicians undertake is recognized in order to maintain the highest standard of medical care in the United States.

Since scope of practice efforts vary by state, please contact your state medical society for the most up-to-date information on expansion efforts in your state.


Sincerely,

Monica Reyna
Communications Coordinator
American Medical Association

 

[goosew]

Great. I see the AMA is doing what it does best....... Nothing!.

 

[cpants]

Blah blah blah, nurse practitioners are valuable.

Blah blah blah, the AMA is great.

Now please contact someone else.

Sincerely,
The AMA

 

[clueless1]

The AMA is utterly irrelevant at this point. I don't even think I personally know of any of my colleagues that are members. I don't know who they advocate for, but it sure as heck ain't docs...

 

[JaggerPlate]

I almost don't even understand this response.

 

[docB]

Dear XXXXXXX

Nurse practitioners are valuable members of the health care team, but there are clear differences in the education and training of a physician and a nurse.

Some scope of practice expansions may be appropriate, others certainly are not. The AMA is committed to ensuring the additional years of training and experience physicians undertake is recognized in order to maintain the highest standard of medical care in the United States.

Since scope of practice efforts vary by state, please contact your state medical society for the most up-to-date information on expansion efforts in your state.


Sincerely,

Monica Reyna
Communications Coordinator
American Medical Association

Where'd this come from? Is it off their website? Did they send this out as a press release?

 

[newbie04]

Where'd this come from? Is it off their website? Did they send this out as a press release?

It was in response to an email I sent the AMA via their "Contact Us" section (the email text below is courtesy of JaggerPlate):

To Whom It May Concern,

I am exceedingly concerned with the expanding rights and privileges of nurse practitioners. They intend to promote themselves as "doctors" in a clinical setting, with twenty-eight states now considering an expansion of nurse practitioner rights and privileges. Nurse practitioners desire independent practice, prescription rights, and even Medicare reimbursement at physician rates. This "expansion of scope" is a threat to medical students, residents, attending physicians, and, most importantly, unsuspecting patients. Personally, I believe this expansion will continue into various medical fields, and as a powerful, physician interest group, I urge you to help protect physician rights, patient safety, and the practice of ethical medicine. Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,

 

[docB]

It was in response to an email I sent the AMA via their "Contact Us" section (the email text below is courtesy of JaggerPlate):

So, not to defend the AMA as I agree that they're ineffective, but you sent a form letter and got back a form letter.

 

[Slack3r]

So basically, we're not going to do anything? Also, this doesn't seem to be in line with other emails people have received from the AMA. From another thread:

Dear racerx:

Your note regarding nurse practitioners’ agenda to legislatively expand their scope of practice was forwarded to me, and I am glad you took the time to write. You’re correct that NPs and many other non-physicians are seeking to increased their scope of practice without necessarily increasing their education and training. The AMA has been tracking more than 300 individual pieces of legislation this year to that effect, and we have been working closely with state and national medical specialty societies across the country to fight against legislation that threatens patient safety.

In addition, as you note, the expansion of “doctor” degrees is of great concern to us due to the potential for increased patient confusion. The AMA is in the beginning stages of a Truth in Advertising campaign that includes advocacy and communications support for states and others to promote transparency and legislation to ensure that patients will be able to know their “doctor.”

I would be happy to discuss this in more detail at your convenience. My contact information is below.

Kind regards,

Daniel Blaney-Koen

And:

Dear Dr. Cox.

Thank you for your note. The AMA is working hard to ensure that inappropriate scope of practice expansions are defeated in state legislatures, and we have tools and resources to help state medical societies highlight the differences in education and training between physicians and non-physicians. Many nursing and other non-physician groups are attempting to blur those lines and disclaim the benefits of collaborative practice. The AMA supports a fully functional health care team with each member of that team playing the optimal role. As you note, this is a clear issue of patient safety, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that.

Kind regards,

Daniel Blaney-Koen

So either someone is making up emails, or not everyone is playing on the same team at the AMA.

 

[southerndoc]

Could this have not been included in one of the 18 other threads? Not every comment/post needs it's own thread.

 

[deleted87716]

Could this have not been included in one of the 18 other threads? Not every comment/post needs it's own thread.

Mods can merge threads.

 

[southerndoc]

Mods can merge threads.

Within our own forums, but only admins can merge across multiple forms.

 

[cpants]

Here is an excellent document produced by the AMA last year which goes over the history of NP's, scope of practice, education, and licensure requirements. It touches on many of the issues that have been discussed on these forums. The nursing organizations' response to the document can be found here.

 

[MOHS_01]

Can someone tell me how in the bloody blue hell one would not have expected this response from the AMA? I mean, seriously.... the AMA has transformed into this lap-bitch house dog of CMS.... and, as such, should be considered predictable in their response.

 

[lipomas]

There are an awful lot of physicians who use NPs in their practice (and actually profit from their presence!). To suggest that the AMA should discount this is a little odd. I agree they should take a strong stance against expanding privileges but they are right - there are some areas where many physicians want expanding NP privileges. Areas where the physicians have control. A lot of physicians want NPs to be able to do more so that the physician can bill for it. What do you actually want them to say? Should they be taking a stance against these physicians as well?

Basically i agree with you all that it has become an essentially useless organization. I am not a member either. But they have a lot of interest groups (mostly physicians!) who shape their policy. Not all physicians agree on tactics to take.