 |
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
| |
| With Grace and Style: Advice for PAs and NPs |
 |
by David Mittman, PA - November 22, 2010
|
 Provided by Clinician 1
We need to do it with class. We need to do it with grace and style. We need to be sensitive. We need to respect their feelings... Sounds like an hour with the therapist? Well, not really. It’s only Dave blogging, but if enough of us do what I ask below, we could significantly change public opinion. What am I talking about? Commenting. Commenting on articles in the New England Journal, in the LA Times, Newsweek or Time, on physician-written blogs, on Fox News, wherever appropriate PLEASE start to comment.
I monitor the Internet for articles, posts and comments that mention the NP and PA. That’s how I get much of what you see each week on Clinician 1. It’s great, except I get a bit blue when I do not see any other APC commenting. On a few I do see a singular PA or NP post and they sound a bit “off”. So I feel it is left to me to post and set the record straight for both professions. You can be sure if I see it, I will.
Let me acknowledge that I comment and answer because I love it. I know I was not elected to be the mass communicator nor do I want to be the only one. I want to be one of many. I want to see a number of our elected officials and more importantly want to see other grass roots colleagues. So I am asking YOU to post when you see an opportunity to represent either NPs or PAs. If one profession is attacked, we both are. After you do post, post the article or URL on Clinician 1 so your colleagues can add their two cents. We all can point out that NO studies show our care to be inferior to physicians. That we are not in a competition with physicians. That although we did not get the same training, what we do, we do excellently. That the things organized medicine are saying about PAs and NPs today, they said about DOs thirty years ago. There are so many good points we can make. Just one request. Let’s do it with an outstretched arm. Let’s ask them to consider that we may be very good at what we do. Let’s do it with grace and style. Let them feel our confidence, not our fear, but let them know we are watching.
Lastly, let’s ask any groups that attack us, including other NPs and PAs, to back up what they say with evidence. If they can’t, let’s let them know they are not acting like people of science but rather people who jump to conclusions by knee jerk reactions. People who should not be making decisions that effect others lives, just people who do not rely on scientific evidence to shape their views. People who can’t play the “expert” card, when they refuse to act like experts.
Have a Great Thanksgiving
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
|
 |
|
|
| Iowa NP (Midwest) |
on 20 Sep 2011 at 9:33 pm |
|
| Im a little confused by what you mean as philosophically opposed. The goal is to care for and heal the patients right. To try and cure and or treat disease. Is that correct. Yes, NP's are taught the nursing model, and the medical model, and holistic healing and alternative medicine and while both PA's and yes physicians were getting bachelors in Biology, physics and what ever. NP starting studying "medicine" from day one of college path / so when someone says that our education does not compare.. i would strongly disagree. Sure we have a class on caring. But i would rather take one or two non important classes rather than have a whole degree foundation on a degree that can't be used. At least a bachelors of nursing the foundation of the NP in patient care and medical knowledge. Have respect for your NP and their educational background. Besides, we should not be using doctors as a yard stick to measure ourselves. I use my own stick and I decide the level of an expert that I become by choosing to further educating myself. NP's, PA's and Physicians rest on there heels and choose to not look at the latest research and evidence based practice. My advice, quit measuring penis's and start taking accountability for your own level of education. All i know is there is a reason why PA's must practice under a physician and NP are for the most part independent and its not because of lobbying power. the PA program is designed as true physician extenders. In NP programs we are trained as independent practitioners and the the state laws are finally using NP how we are designed to train. sure i wish some things were different in the NP program but, remember both PA's and NP's are in their infancy and will continue to develop, grow and change. |
|
| Dave Mittman, PA (Livingston, NJ) |
on 24 Nov 2010 at 3:09 pm |
|
Ohio PA:
I have never asked you to agree with me. In fact, the blog you are responding to asked that we all, both NPs and PAs, take time to comment that we are both important parts of our healthcare system and to be as critical of it and ourselves as we need to be..
I understand that obviously you do not see NPs as a group that PAs should befriend. There are some NPs who would agree. Some who also believe that NPs are SO superior to PAs that we should not be spoken about in the same breath. I disagree and have a long record of a belief that we PAs and NP are close cousins. Look at DOs and MDs and apply that. You forget, we do the same things. If you want to believe the rhetoric of "trained in the nursing model" and "trained in the medical model" Bless you. That argument has been used for years to keep NPs from realizing that PAs are excellent and that our 2 professions have much in common. Sinusitis, an MI, or a migraine, tinea or hypertension. It's all the same treatment. We all use the same "model", even physicians do. Maybe they use the PA model? So we all do much of the same things, we use the same textbooks, we use the same instruments. Chiropractors don't, naturopaths don't, PTs don't, pharmacists don't, optometrists don't. WE DO THE SAME THING AND HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN ANY OTHER 2 PROFESSIONS IN MEDICINE. Also, I hate to break the news to you but there are as many ads on advancedpracticejobs or Advance for NPs and PAs for both professions "together" as there are for PAs alone. You must be looking in one journal which does not usually want to take ads for "both".
I have been a PA for a very long time and realized by working for the profession I love and wanting it to grow and mature that it is unfortunately "us against them" when it comes to PAs wanting new responsibilities. When I was President of the largest PA state chapter, it was the state medical society that attacked us continuously, that tried to take away our malpractice coverage, that tried to cancel our prescribing. Let me be clear (and I say it all of the time) the "them" is not physicians. I continually praise physicians who work with and support us. The "them" is organized medicine. "They" unfortunately have shown that they will do anything in their power to keep PAs down. How can we be a profession and grow if we are not allowed to evolve and take on new responsibilities? In one state "they" are now lobbying to make sure PAs can not write referrals without a doc's approval. "They" consistently insinuate that PA care is unsafe or inferior.
Maybe you feel that is OK. Maybe you feel that what you do, you do at a lower level than a physician does, I never did, nor did any of my PA friends. Maybe you are content to have barriers to your care or practice that will never be erased. Maybe you are so unsure of your own profession that you do not want it to take on new responsibilities? If so, again Bless you. I am sick of the attitude of the state and national physician groups who will not recognize what our wonderful profession brings to the table. They continue to attack us whenever we seek change, it threatens them. We have not attacked them. We have not insinuated that they are not safe. We PAs do not seek independence and still "they" are against us growing/evolving/our profession. They are on record being against us using the word "residency". Talk about petty. They have made little attempt to try to ask us what we need, where our profession is going or what they can do to help.
I feel NPs and PAs will be much more successful learning from each other and working together whenever possible to advocate for a better system, one which recognizes both professions and what we bring to the table without saying negative things about either. We PAs should try our best to work with all who are clearly pro us running our own profession and making it better. If NPs are blocking something PAs need/want we can meet and talk about it. My bet is if both professions are honest, we will walk away with a deal. Not so with organized medicine.
If they want to change there are things they could do tomorrow to make things better and recognize the role that PAs play in providing healthcare to millions each day. I know our leaders are always ready to meet with them to teach them where our perspectives lie.
And please do not tell me what school to go to if I feel a certain way-it belittles our professions ability to discuss things in an intelligent manner and reminds me of the physicians who keep telling us if we want to prescribe, diagnose, etc, we should have gone to medical school. You learned well from the physicians you admire.
Have A Wonderful Thanksgiving.
Dave |
|
| Ohio PA |
on 23 Nov 2010 at 1:09 pm |
|
Dave, you still have yet to address the points that make PA's and NP's diametrically opposed philosophically and in direct competition politically. The last thing that PA's need is to be associated with a profession that seeks to be recognized as " doctor" (read PhD Nursing) with only a fraction of the education of a physician, a profession that poses as "physician extender" when politically and strategically advantageous but doesn't submit to the same rigorous training and re-cert criteria as physicians and PA's, a profession that is in direct competition with physicians, who, incidently Dave, provide the foundation for YOUR practice, a profession trained in a completely different model. It doesn't take a PhD to see clearly that NP's have nothing to lose and every thing to gain by associating themselves with PA's. For PA's, however, this association is, in no way beneficial.
If NP's want to be veiwed as equal /identical to PA's then go through an identical certification and re-certification process. Work collaboratively with PA's on pertinent legislation rather than secure pro- NP legislation then fight pro-PA legislation. Until this happens, what you should be saying Dave as you " set the record straight for both professions" is: if one needs the services of a physician seek a physician or a PA. If one needs a nurse seek out a nurse or an NP. |
|
| Ohio PA |
on 23 Nov 2010 at 12:51 am |
|
First of all Dave, let me start by conveying to you what I believe to be"off" about your veiw of PA's and NP's. I have yet to see you address the political and philosophical realities of the PA vs NP issue; yes Dave it is PA vs NP. If this were not so then there would be no "NP wanted" or "PA wanted" in the classifieds. When are you going to comment on the agenda of the nursing lobby and the antagonism they show toward physicians and PA's.? If we're one big happy family Dave why are there states that will recognize an NP'sauthorization of Advance Directives but not a PA's? How do you account for the unwillingness of the nursing lobby to include PA's in pertinent legislation? More often than not, after the much larger nursing lobby has accomplished their goals, we as PA's must fight our own battle to secure similar legislation. There is a reason for that Dave. No amount of "feel-good" rhetoric or " can't we all just get along "diatribe will change this. The professions are fundamentally different and philosophically opposed.
You repeatedly refer to the physician community as "them" and PA's/ NP's as "us". Have you never considered, Dave, that as PA's ' we are dependent practitioners trained in a medical model. As such we can never be in competition with the physician. The NP, on the other hand, can set up an independent practice (yes,I knowaboutphysician "collaboration "). So, how is it that you can urge this fictitious PA/NP "family" to "point out... that we are not in a competition with physicians"?
No, Dave, you certainly were not elected to be "mass communicator" . It's obvious you have a problem with the "dependent practitioner" aspect of your profession- to which I would say- go to nursing school. Don't distort the image of the PA profession by blurring the clear differences between PA's and NP's. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
