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 Provided by Clinician 1
We are still mourning the colleagues we lost at Fort Hood.
That being said......
Happy NP Week to a great bunch of professionals and colleagues. The work that you do goes far beyond the people you touch and is being recognized by many.
I hope some of us are actually writing into the newspapers and well read blogs and letting people know that PAs and NPs are really an answer to what ails the healthcare system today. Please keep going....
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This week’s thoughts center on PAs and NPs doing something to help our patients, our students and our professions.
Both professions have some archaic values. Some are held by the clinicians themselves and are based on ignorance. Some are fostered by some educational institutions and give rise to negativity on both sides. It time that one of these “old traditions” based on tradition but not good educational sense ends.
I am talking about the ability to teach students from BOTH the NP and PA professions. I recently received an email from a friend that said” I don’t know what’s up with these NPs. I had a rotation all ready at the ER for this great NP student and it won’t be happening. The NP program she attended said they would not allow a PA to precept her.” It just so happens that this PA works at one of the finest medical institutions in the world and is the administrative chief of both the NPs and PAs in the ER there. He is a superb clinician. I am sure the same happens the other way as I know there are PA programs that do not allow NPs to precept their students. This may have worked 20 years ago but not any longer.
Why?
NPs and PAs are colleagues and in most cases, we work that way, especially in large groups and institutions. Our students need to see that we are all in this together, not get the message that some of us have little to offer.
Today, both professions are held to the same standard of care so that’s not an issue. MDs can precept NPs so it’s not a nursing/medicine thing and I am sure that most good NPs and PAs have much in common about the barriers we face and how we overcame them. Most importantly, the skills of the individual preceptor be they a physician, NP or PA are what’s going to help a student, not what profession they are. While many of us are very good, some of us should not be teachers or preceptors. Our programs should know how to tell the difference.
Lastly, most programs are searching for good clinical preceptors. Why turn someone away who has those skills because they are not the “right profession?” We sometimes act just like physicians have to other groups for many years. Territorialism and old biased thinking have no place in today’s educational experience.
I respectfully ask both the Association of PA Programs and the National Association of NP Faculties to do away with this archaic thinking. It would be best for the students, and after all, they are our future.
Till next week.
Dave
 Dave has been a PA, and later NP, leader for thirty years. He strongly believes that NPs and PAs must work together to insure a better future for both professions. Most recently Dave has been busy launching another dream; Clinician 1, the first internet community for PAs and NPs. In October 2008, Dave was honored by the New Jersey State society of PAs with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.
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| Jennifer Graves ARNP (Broken Arrow Oklahoma) |
on 20 Nov 2009 at 9:08 pm |
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| Hurray for your article. I couldn\'t agree more. Another archaic view I want to make you aware of is that one can not precept if they are a bachelor prepared NP. I precepted in the past, and have functioned as a Certified Nurse Practitioner since 1986. Now that the NP program is Master\'s prepared they no longer view me as an acceptable preceptor. Shame on our profession for turning their back on their own. Without our pioneering and breaking down of doors and barrriers the program would no longer exist. Since moving to Oklahoma from Indiana I can no longer prescribe due to it\'s state requirements that you must have a Master\'s degree to prescribe. I had a Master level pharmaceutical class and prescribed in Indiana for years. In Nursing we eat our young and old alike. I hope like your article adresses, some day we can all come together and support each other as a profession. All states should have reciprocity. Let\'s value what each of us brings to nursing. Life experience and skills can never be overlooked or devalued. Continue speaking out, and with time maybe some of these truths will prevail. Our profession depends on it. |
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| PA Educator (SE USA) |
on 12 Nov 2009 at 5:52 am |
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I must take issue with this article.
I am a PA educator. Not only are my students precepted by NPs, we have hired an NP for our faculty. Regulations for the PA profession allow this.
My experience with NPs proves the opposite. I inquired about a faculty position in an NP program a few years back. The dean told me she would hire me in a heartbeat, but the NP regulations would not allow her to do that. I have heard similar complaints from MDs.
Your article implies that this problem is a two-way street, but in reality I have only seen evidence of this problem in regard to national nursing regulations. |
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