Nurse Practitioners: What do you think?

[erawka]

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Hello everyone,

I've been a Student Doc member for some time now, but it's been a while since I last posted as my role in the medical world has changed substantially. I am currently a first year student in a Advanced Nursing Practice program studying to be a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I am interested in working in primary care. My question(s) for you all are as follows:

1. What do you think the role of the Nurse Practitioner should be in primary care?

2. How to you feel about including a Nurse Practitioner as part of your primary care team?

3. How much do you know about the Nurse Practitioner credentialing process? Do you think that this should be (a) more common knowledge and/or (b) more standardized?

These questions have sprung out of general curiosity. I'd really like to get a feel for how various providers regard Nurse Practitioners that they work with - or do not work with.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Stitch]

Welcome back to the boards. Just to warn you, there are a lot of people around who consider this a touchy issue, so if you get any..vehement replies, don't take it too personally.

That said I work with a number of NPs, and did during residency. They were mainly subspecialty NPs, such as neonatal or PICU. In general they were awesome and very helpful. They are becoming very important to the running of a critical care unit.

In terms of primary care, I suspect that there will be more and more opportunities in the near future for NPs, and they will be doing a lot more in the office setting. I do think it's important to work with (I won't say 'under') a pediatrician however, rather than independently.

The biggest issue is to be aware of is to know what you don't know. That's true of any care provider (PA, NP or MD/DO), but it's hard maintain that self awareness.

As to credentialling, what specifically are you asking?

 

[erawka]

Thank you for your response!

For the credentialing question, I wanted to know

1. If physicians felt that they understood the NP credentialing process.
2. If they did not understand this process, why not? (not enough standardization to be able to understand the process, not enough literature available, lack of interest, etc.)
3. If they think there are any flaws to the process.

Thank you for the warning as well. I am aware that there is quite a bit of hostility (in both directions) in discussions regarding NPs and scope of practice. I've come across it quite frequently in several PCP/Pediatric blogs to which I subscribe. I have noticed, however, that most of this hostility is responsive in nature (eg NPs responding to MD posts regarding reducing NP scope or MDs responding to NP posts regarding increased scope). I was interested in seeing what happened if an MD was simply asked for an opinion. So thank you!

 

[michigangirl]

Agree with stitch-- from a critical care perspective, NP's are an invaluable part of the medical team, and are becoming more so. From a primary care perspective, they have a huge role to play, as long as working with a pediatrician. I will admit I don't understand the credentialing process, primarily because noone has ever told me about it and I haven't made a full effort to. I just base my trust of the NPs I work with based on the fact that they had to be credentialed to work in my PICU and their overall clinical performance. But now that you've brought it up, I am going to ask my NP colleague/friends what it involves. Thanks.