Physician-authored article sees 'freeing' nurses as one answer to healthcare crisis

NEW YORK — “It’s time to unlock the gates to the primary care club” and allow nurse practitioners to practice to the full extent of their education and training. That was a key message of a physician-authored article that recently ran in Slate magazine.

 

“Nurse practitioners should be released from their arbitrary bondage and do what they are trained to do, what they’re board-certified to do, and what many do so well: take care of patients and collaborate with physicians because they want to, not because they have to. Nurse practitioners and doctors should welcome each other’s perspectives, experiences, and abilities,” wrote Anne Reisman in the article titled “Free the Nurses.” Reisman is a physician in Connecticut.



In the article, posted April 18, Reisman outlines why she believes the “time is ripe” for change. Not only is student interest in primary care on the down slope, but the strain on the U.S. healthcare system will be further exasperated when some 30 million Americans gain coverage through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.



She also highlights research that shows "nurse practitioners provide as good care with as good outcomes as primary care physicians, along with high rates of patient satisfaction."



Given that Reisman is a physician, she also brings an interesting insight to the table — primary care is an “ever-evolving conglomeration of medical knowledge and systems and empathy and integrity and creativity in problem-solving, this is precisely why it’s good to mix it up and reap the benefits of some nurse practitioner-doctor hybrid vigor.”



To read the entire article click here.