Supervising to "collaborating" w/ NPs

[Neurologo]

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I am not sure if this is the right forum for this topic. If not here, please move it to the right place. I just want more med students, residents and attendings to see this.

In the process of applying for a state medical license, I had to go through the rules and regulations and came across this interesting change in the official wording of supervising NPs. Now it is not supervising but "collaborating." We are collaborating physicians, not supervising physician and our countersignatures are now called "collaborative agreement." Ok, fine. But what bothered me is this: the word has changed to make NPs appear to be on "equal footing" as physicians but then when it comes to legal responsibility, there is zero change in the old wording; i.e. we are still fully responsible for everything that NPs do under our supervision. What is funny is that for physician assistant (PA) section, the word, "supervising" has not changed to "collaborating." I guess this is because PAs are not as militant in pushing for equality with physicians.

I would not have any issue if the NPs practice independently and be fully responsible for their medical judgements. Don't ask us to cover their asses while calling themselves "independent" or "equals" or "collaborators."

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Same old same old. Want physicians to sign off of their "collaborations" but still want physician names on the chart so they can get sued if anything happens. I'm sure that state's nursing board lobbied to get the wording changed so they can all feel good walking around talking about how they're "collaborating" with physicians.

I didn't know it was actually worded like that in the medical license regulations though. Interesting.

 

[Taurus]

If NP's want autonomy, they need to stand on their own. Don't hide behind me and my license for your screw ups. Even if I did supervise midlevels, I would keep them on a short leash. It's your license on the line. I take that very seriously.

 

[NRAI2001]

Thats why I would never (if it was in my control) have an NP working under me. I would definitely work with PAs but would avoid NPs... The attitudes of the two fields are so different. Plus I think PAs are better trained overall from my observations and experiences on a few rotations during med school where we rotated with PA students... and also a few of the practicing PAs I saw and worked with during other rotations. The practicing NPs I worked with seemed like they were just so over-whelmed all the time and were bearly holding it together... totally different attitudes also.