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ADVANCE Voice: NP

Getting Stuck in the FUD

Published November 21, 2007 9:10 AM by Michelle Pronsati

Among the many interesting and motivating tidbits ACNP president Susan Apold shared at the organization's clinical conference was some background on a strategy that organized medicine seems to have adopted toward NPs. Here's a Wikpedia description of the strategy, which is called FUD:

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is a tactic of rhetoric used in sales, marketing and public relations. FUD attempts to influence public perception by disseminating misleading and vague information. A business might use FUD to invite unfavorable opinions and speculation about a competitor's product. ... The term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry and has since been used more broadly. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.

I agree that this strategy is in use against nurse practitioners. Whenever NP practice is in the news, the story always includes a comment from a physician or a physician group. And that comment inevitably has FUD all over it.

Read more about FUD here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt.

posted by Michelle Pronsati
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2 comments
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I totally agree with the above statements.

I think we need to realize though, that this strategy is not only used by some physicians in the media but is also used by physicians when they interact with hospital administrators.  Physicians tend to down play the complexity of patients that the nurse practitioner sees. They tend to minimize the role that NPs have in health care change as well.

I have had a recent experience where I am chairing a committee to reduce Heart Failure readmission rates. I was informed by administration that it was necessary to have a provider on the committee. . . . . .I was stunned, not to mention insulted. It was quite obvious that the administrator had zero idea what an NP is and that all NPs in NYS, at least, are independent providers.

Then I asked myself, well whose fault is that????

Now, I am on a campaign to make sure administrators have correct information. I think we sometimes assume that especially those we work with, at least, know who and what we are.

Wrong!
Kathleen, Cardiology - Nurse Practitioner, VA November 23, 2007 12:25 PM
Buffalo NY

I do agree with this concept.  I had Thanksgiving with some people in the community where I live, and they had "never heard" that an NP could be indepedendent in Oregon, where NPs have been independent for 30 years. The one woman said in her own words "it is a marketing issue". She said she always heard that you see the NP when you go to the doctors office, for minor things, but when you have something serious you see a "real doctor". It is all about words, perception and communication. Nurse Practitioners have areas where they excel, and other areas that they are weaker in, just as with any other profession, but to be "invisible" as a profession, is something you do not see often with other professions, and I do agree, that there is a marketing perception that includes the concept of F-U-D. It goes back historically, in the media, portrayals of the word "nurse", and the fact that there is overlapping scopes of practice with physicians depending on the state laws, to name a few contributing factors.

Carla, Family Practice - FNP-C November 23, 2007 11:58 AM
Wilsonville OR

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