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| The Texas NP Meeting: One PAs View |
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by David Mittman, PA - September 26, 2011
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 Provided by Clinician 1
I recently attended and spoke at the Texas NP meeting. There were two things I would like to share that I was reflecting about on my ride home on the airplane.
I have attended hundreds of PA and NP meetings. One fact is almost always constant at all meetings; I am always impressed with the clinicians I meet. We are great people who continue to work at our professions trying our best to take care of people; sometimes with barriers that would stop most others. I very much appreciate that this is not an easy thing to do. It’s even harder as most NPs and PAs do it exceptionally well. I am always impressed with all of us and that is why I believe that we should have more conferences together and learn from each other.
I went down to Texas knowing one person who I thought might be at the meeting. I don’t mind making new friends but usually I know some of the people who will be attending. This time I did not. From the time I arrived I felt that I was with family. After all these years of attending NP conferences I am pretty good at catching any anti-PA feelings, but there were none. Even in the exhibit hall where I stopped to talk and interact with so many grassroots NPs. After all, my lecture was the next day and I wanted to see if people would smile at a stranger. They did.
I attended the “Legislative luncheon” which I presume was for all members to attend. As the presentations went on, there was a real sense of deja vu for me. I was back at my old state’s PA meeting at a time when we knew exactly where the profession was going and what our goals were. We were growing the profession not just in numbers but in major concrete ways. Medicare reimbursement, commissioning, prescriptive practice, insurance regulations and all of the other hurdles we went through over the last 4 decades, all came flooding back. I was in a place with leaders who had a genuine respect for each other and more importantly with a group of people who were not going to rest until their specific aims were achieved. It felt nice to be with a group of people whom I understood as leaders tend to understand each other. I was impressed. One Texas assemblyman told a story that years ago, he would speak to the health committee about NPs and get a “we will call you when we need you” type of response. They hardly called. This year he said the Governor and Health Committee were calling him, telling him that it will be impossible to provide medical care in Texas without the NP profession. Asking what barriers they needed to remove to get the most out of their NPs? I can only hope they feel the same way about PAs. Hope we are getting the same calls.
The second nice thing was the way I was treated during my lecture. I have 2 favorite lectures and I was doing the “non-political” one, “How To Use Your Clinical Skills To Enter The Business World”. I love giving this talk as I have the life experience, have started many businesses, and know what NPs and PAs need to hear. While there were questions throughout, and much laughter, the best part was when I finished. I would guess three quarters of the audience got up and shook my hand. Texas manners perhaps? I am not sure.
What I am sure of is that we all need to talk with each other, learn from each other and have our state leaders meet and communicate .
Thanks Texas, it was a great conference.
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.
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| Ohio PA (OH) |
on 19 Nov 2011 at 8:24 pm |
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| Once again Dave, there is another side to your story. While you're feeling all warm and fuzzy about NP's and continue to advocate for a profession that openly misrepresents itself as "physician extenders" the NP lobby "eats your lunch".Are you not yet connecting the dots? Surely some sort of bell had to go off in your mind when the Texas assemblyman stated that health care couldn't be provided without NP's...NP's Dave...no mention of PA's...NP's Dave. Why would that be Dave? May I suggest that it is because the nursing lobby is large, strong, malicious and focused. Why shouldn't they smile at you Dave. They are riding the coattails of the PA profession. While they get credit falsely for meeting the same rigorous educational and certification standards as PA's they aren't even regulated by the same regulatory body, let alone meet the same recert requirements as PA's. How can one be a "physician extender" when they are overseen by nurses? As I always say, if you need a doctor see a physician or a PA; if you need a nurse, see a nurse or an NP. We are not one big happy family Dave- when NP's start taking the same recert exam I take and all job openings are open to both NP's and PA's then I might consider an NP a physician extender. In the mean time Dave let the the nurses fight their fight- they will do just fine without you. We PA's need any help we can get in this continual battle with the nursing lobby in the statehouses and marketplace. |
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| Dave Mittman (Livingston, NJ) |
on 29 Sep 2011 at 3:22 pm |
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Sue: Thanks for the kind words. It was great.
Blaine: You are a PA champion and will do better than I can!
The Texas NPs and PAs need to talk and learn from each other as I said.
Dave |
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| Blaine Carmichael (San Antonio, Texas) |
on 28 Sep 2011 at 12:39 pm |
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Dave as always you hit a home run. You bring cohesivness to our preofessions. I will be speaking to the Advanced Practice Nurses of the Permian Basin - Retreat 2011 in Fredericksburg Texas,October 16th. I hope I am just half as successful as you are in your presentations.
Blaine Carmichael, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA |
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| Sue (Univ. of Texas Medical @ Galvest) |
on 28 Sep 2011 at 9:40 am |
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Thanks for another great article Dave! I like the way you tell it- "Like it is!" I am proud of our PA & APRN leaders in this state also. (& I am happy to see that you reinforced my belief: Southern Hospitality continues to live on.)
I enjoyed your talk and am glad that I had the chance to meet you while you attended our TNP conference. I hope you will come back again next year and speak to our group and motivate others with your varied life experiences. Keep up the great work. Your friend, Sue RN, MSN, ANP-BC |
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