Originally Posted by southernbeauti7
Can I just say that if you do not want to be a NP, you have your own choice. Just stay a nurse forever. What's the big deal. What is all the arguing about? If you do not agree with the college preparation for NPs, don't do it.
The big deal is not about staying a nurse forever. There are reasons for this argument, and maybe you missed them as they are dispersed throughout these postings. So here's a brief outline for you:
1. Doctoral education is expensive no matter which way you choose to go. NP's don't get paid nearly as much a physicians. Simple cost-benefit analysis here. Heavy student loans have to be paid back, and if you're only making $60-70,000/year as an NP, you DON'T want a heavy student loan burden. And don't expect the schools to charge less for doctoral level education for nurses...they are in this for the money, NOT for the profession.
2. It won't bring any more respect to the profession. Physicians will always see the term "nurse" in your title whether you are a nurse practitioner or a doctor of nursing practice. Nurses seem to have the idea that more education equals more respect. Simply not so. In fact, it is a logical fallacy...just like "more is better". Nurses as a whole need to get rid of the stigma of subservience, inferiority, and inequality attached to the profession of nursing before we get anywhere with this profession. How can this be done? Nurses becoming independent contractors that are NOT attached to the room charge of hospitals with the right to bill the insurance companies for services rendered. You better bet that physicians and the public would treat us better if we weren't just a part of the room charge, but a separate and important group of professionals in the healthcare team necessary for patient care. (My apologies to the Florence Nightingale nurses who disagree.)
3. MSN prepared NP's know more than enough to practice competently, as demonstrated by studies in JAMA showing outcomes equal to and even better in some areas than the physicians managing the same illnesses. There is no evidence to show a doctoral degree is needed to produce a more competent NP, CNS, CNM, or CRNA. Personally, I think this should be a personal choice for NP students...choose either an MSN or DNP...not something that gets shoved down every professional nurse's throat because a group of nurse leaders who probably never worked at the bedside say it will be good for the profession.
4. Now is not the time for this debate. We still have diploma and ADN programs operating. A little more than 50% of all RN's are ADN's. We cannot even bring the minimum requirement for a professional nurse to the BSN level. Just a few years ago, we finally gained consensus to the MSN being the minimum entry requirement to advanced practice nursing, and now we want it to go to a doctoral level??? Why? Let's get nursing as a whole to gain consensus as to the MINIMUM entry requirement for the professional RN instead of messing around with the advanced practice arena.
5. Role confusion. Much of the public still does not know what NP's are and what they can do. Now we are going to require doctoral degrees for minimum entry requirements. So NP's are now "doctor nurses"? Sounds obvious to those of us who are nurses, but what about the public? Seriously people. If you wanted to be a "doctor", it's called "medical school". Being that NP's do 80 - 90% of what physicians do, and call it "advanced practice nursing", NP's that want a doctoral title can go back to medical school to gain that title and not confuse the public.
6. Gaining the DrNP degree will not increase the scope of practice for advanced practice nurses, will not help the group gain enpaneling as providers for insurance companies, and will not allow the group to do anything other than what they already do. So how does it help the group again?
Unless NP's want to enter academia, let's just leave well enough alone.
So that's what the argument is all about, my 25 year old Southern Beauty inquisitor.
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