NP Groups Respond to AMA

Posted on: February 1, 2010

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Nurse practitioner organizations have crafted a pointed and strong response to the American Medical Association's "module" about nurse practitioner scope of practice.

The AMA's Advocacy Research Center published the paper in October 2009 as part of a data series on healthcare providers. The 142-page paper refers to NPs as "limited-license" healthcare providers and includes several factual errors about the NP role. The paper is accessible here.

Twenty-one nursing and nurse practitioner groups quickly organized to respond to the document. In December, they sent a letter to Michael Maves, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the AMA. "We do not accept the AMA's attempt to change the perceptions of NP practice as anything other than fully qualified professionals working within a legally established scope of practice," the letter stated. Access the response here.

The response states that NPs seek to work in partnership with medical doctors in the face of healthcare crisis in the country: "Actions to marginalize other healthcare professions do not achieve this objective and ultimately fail the patients who should be the focus of our professional efforts."

Bringing many groups together for a unified statement is important to the nurse practitioner community. "It was quite a coordination effort," said Karen KellyThomas, CEO of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. She said some organizations planned to send their own responses, and that the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners planned to respond with a list of the most egregious errors in the report.

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