NPR on 'Doctor Nurses'
National Public Radio did a piece on the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree on All Things Considered on Feb. 22.
No one wants to badmouth Florence Nightingale, but a new degree for nurses is causing bad blood between doctors and their longtime colleagues. The program confers the title of doctor on nurses, but some in the medical profession say only physicians should call themselves "doctor."
Dr. Steven Knope is a family practitioner in Tucson, Ariz. "If you're on an airline," he jokes, "and a poet with a Ph.D. is there and somebody has a heart attack, and they say 'Is there a doctor in the house?' — should the poet stand up?" Knope laughs. "Of course not."
Is a "poet with a PhD" really equivalent to a nurse practitioner with a doctorate degree? Of course not. That's silly.
The report also briefly mentions PAs--as a threat to physicians. Not the best mention.
Here's where physicians and the new doctor nurses agree: Both groups say physicians feel threatened. They see the new breed of nurses as an invasion of their turf.
Fourth-year medical student Janet Pullockaran at University Hospital's emergency room understands the threat. "With all these new people — physician assistants, nurse practitioners coming into the field — maybe our training won't lead to a secure position in the future," she says.
It makes me wonder if the whole doctorate debate--for NPs and PAs--isn't in large part just another turf battle in a long, long line of physician turf battles.
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