|
 Provided by Clinician 1
When I was growing up and someone told you something that sounded a bit fishy, you would look them in the eye and ask them to “Prove it”. As we were not really well trained in science in the second grade, “Proving it” usually meant getting a witness, another kid with some credibility, who would swear that he also saw the suspected tall tale. This kept the lying to a minimum. It worked for us in Brooklyn.
Today, there is a group that I would respectfully like to issue a challenge to, asking them to “Prove It”. It concerns the statement made by the Florida Medical Association in an article a few weeks ago. In case you missed it, here is the quote I would ask them to provide some further evidence on. “There is no such thing as a nurse practitioner who is ‘qualified’ to prescribe controlled substances,” said Erin Van Sickle, a spokeswoman for the FMA on Tuesday. “The Florida Medical Association is extremely concerned about the nurse practitioners’ continued attempts to gain prescriptive authority for these medications. The ability to prescribe controlled substances is limited to medical doctors for a reason: to protect patient safety. Physicians go to medical school to learn how to prescribe controlled substances safely and without interacting with other medications. ARNPs do not.”
“Florida lawmakers have worked diligently to protect patients from those who would attempt to prescribe narcotics to patients without the training required by Florida law, and that is the safe, accountable, and common-sense thing to do,” continued Van Sickle. “We simply can’t understand why the nurse practitioners would make such an unconscionable attempt to throw away the protections they have put in place.”
“The bottom line is, ARNPs do not have the training nor the qualifications necessary to prescribe these medications,” she said. “If they want to prescribe controlled substances, we would encourage them to go to medical school and receive the proper training to do so.”
Clearly this is the same old rhetoric thrown out whenever NPs or PAs want to add a change that goes beyond our current scope of practice. PA readers-don’t think they would not be saying this about us if they needed to. They have many times, and undoubtedly will again. The problem is what they said is just not accurate. The majority of NPs and PAs prescribe controlled substances and we do it well. We are not rich enough to control the legislatures of every state and if we really were so poorly trained, someone would have proved it by now. Poor prescribing is the easiest thing to catch. All of the medical, nursing and yes, pharmacy Boards across the country must be covering for us. If so, that would need an investigation.
And it must be clearly said now that there are hundreds of thousands of wonderful physicians who work arm and arm with us as colleagues every day. I bet there are many more pro-PA and NP physicians than not. Our problem is with some in organized medicine who still think they can lie about how we practice or the quality of our education and that the public will believe them. That this is the way they can continue to control others. Those days are fortunately over. The public doesn’t buy it, nor do the legislatures. It’s time that we collectively let the medical societies across the country know that this tactic only serves to do one thing, it makes them look small. It is all too clear to the public that when one resorts to lying, they usually are grasping at straws. Even though the Florida Medical Association could not care less, we need to let them know that the facts, the real science, the clinical evidence, the thousands of us that prescribe controlled substances do not support their statements. So we are forced to ask; show us the studies. Show us the research. Show us that NPs and PAs created the national problem we have. Show us the hours that are spent in medical school on controlled substance prescribing and allow us to compare it to what we do. Show us more than disguised turf protection.
It’s time to respectfully and clearly say “Prove It”.
 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”.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE
You must be logged in
to recommend articles
|
