Is anybody else tired of the nurse practitioner craze?

Specialties NP

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Hi all. I am a new graduate RN who is enjoying his first job as a med-surg nurse. I don't know about everyone else, but I am so tired of the nurse practitioner craze that seems to be overtaking the newest wave of graduate RNs. Half the people I know at my new job are part-timers in grad school for a master's degree as a family nurse practitioner or a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Good on them, but does anyone else think the idea of a mid-level practitioner has been taken a bit too far?

I don't know about all of you, but if I had a medical issue, I wouldn't bother seeing an NP. I'd go straight to an MD. The idea of an NP seems folly to me. Either you are a nurse or you aren't one. Or, either you practice medicine or you don't. A nurse practicing some form of low-level to mid-level medicine seems absurd.

The position also seems discredited by the variance in the scope of practice among different states and the fact that NPs can never do surgery. If NPs had limitless prescription power, and could be trained for some surgeries, we'd be looking at something real. But the NP's that I have seen "practicing" at my hospital just seem to be adjunct to the MDs who see their patients. The patients don't take the NPs seriously for just that reason. They seem roleless. I feel like the hospital hires them just as tokens. I don't see NP's as the future of nursing -- AT ALL. There is this one lady nurse practitioner at my hospital who goes into the patients' room and says "Hi, my name is Kristen and I'm the nurse practitioner," and begins some interview while I as the bedside nurse think to myself "You know that patient doesn't care right? You know they will just forget about you once they are seen by the actual MD?" Of course I never say that. But that's what is in my mind. I see no point in them.

I see pure bedside nursing as our future. Nursing education. Stuff more involved in social services.

I think NPs are suffering from an identity crisis. Let me know your thoughts too.

Specializes in Adult Medical, Home Health.
Hi all. I am a new graduate RN who is enjoying his first job as a med-surg nurse. I don't know about everyone else, but I am so tired of the nurse practitioner craze that seems to be overtaking the newest wave of graduate RNs. Half the people I know at my new job are part-timers in grad school for a master's degree as a family nurse practitioner or a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Good on them, but does anyone else think the idea of a mid-level practitioner has been taken a bit too far?

I don't know about all of you, but if I had a medical issue, I wouldn't bother seeing an NP. I'd go straight to an MD. The idea of an NP seems folly to me. Either you are a nurse or you aren't one. Or, either you practice medicine or you don't. A nurse practicing some form of low-level to mid-level medicine seems absurd.

The position also seems discredited by the variance in the scope of practice among different states and the fact that NPs can never do surgery. If NPs had limitless prescription power, and could be trained for some surgeries, we'd be looking at something real. But the NP's that I have seen "practicing" at my hospital just seem to be adjunct to the MDs who see their patients. The patients don't take the NPs seriously for just that reason. They seem roleless. I feel like the hospital hires them just as tokens. I don't see NP's as the future of nursing -- AT ALL. There is this one lady nurse practitioner at my hospital who goes into the patients' room and says "Hi, my name is Kristen and I'm the nurse practitioner," and begins some interview while I as the bedside nurse think to myself "You know that patient doesn't care right? You know they will just forget about you once they are seen by the actual MD?" Of course I never say that. But that's what is in my mind. I see no point in them.

I see pure bedside nursing as our future. Nursing education. Stuff more involved in social services.

I think NPs are suffering from an identity crisis. Let me know your thoughts too.

Oh man, I absolutely love this post. The nursing profession has made so many advances in terms of autonomy and increased scope of practice in the last 20-30 years and it has always been discussed as a good thing for health care. This is the first time I have ever heard a nurse actually criticize the NP role. That being said, I couldn't disagree with you more, but I am not interested in trying to change your opinion. Believe what you want brother, if you think that pure bedside nursing is the future than I'm cool with that. Pure bedside nursing can be YOUR future if you want it to be, nobody is going to make you go to NP school. I am a new nurse as well and all throughout nursing school it seemed like nobody in my class was actually interested in being a bedside nurse. It was all about trying to get the minimum years of nursing experience and than applying to either NP school or CRNA school, which at times became nauseating for me. When I watched the same person almost fail out of nursing school three times and then at graduation boldly announce to the class that they intend to be an NP in 5 years, my heart sank. Like any other field there is good and bad individuals, but that concept has been beaten to death on this thread. So I will come at this from another direction. NPs do not just do acute care or primary care, they have other functions as well. For instance I know an NP and she works at presurgical admissions for her hospital. She actually works for an anesthesiologist, instead of a hospitalist or primary care doctor. Her function is to analyze the patient and determine if they are medically stable enough to undergo surgery. This helps expedite the entire surgical process, allows the surgical side of the hospital to see more patients and has been shown in this hospital to improve patient outcomes. So I guess the bottom line is this: it really doesn't matter if you can't see the reason behind the nurse practitioner role. The nurse practitioner will be utilized in greater numbers in the future to help meet health care demands that will be in excess of the current supply of other medical practitioners available. Advance practice nurses are the future of health care. The physician-driven model of health care is ancient and outdated, and is already in a state of flux as we see more and more advanced practice nurses and PAs coming into the field. However, like I mentioned earlier no one will ever make you go to NP school. I think its awesome that you think pure bedside nursing is the future as this is a very critical nursing role and the bedside nurse is absolutely irreplaceable in the acute care setting and most new grads do not seem to be interested in remaining at the bedside for any length of time. I wish you the best in your career, and hope that you continually strive to be the best nurse that you can.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

as a new an member and new grad, op just beginning to have their eyes opened to the world of healthcare.

many articles abound here re value of np care.... must have missed our aug 1, 2011 news article:

aprn care by np, cns, nurse midwives, crna similar + better than physicans alone

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You don't know what you don't know....

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I'm from Boston, a city with a huge shortage of PCPs and (until 3 years ago) no Urgent Care centers. When I was in-between PCPs, I ended up in the ER for a strep test.

When I had a PCP, I could wait 3 months for an appointment with her, or 3 weeks to see the NP. I chose the NP 90% of the time. The one time I ended up seeing my PCP, she turned out to be an idiot, so I kept the MD (rather than risk medical homelessness trying to try to find a new one) and made all future appointments with the NP.

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Specializes in Intermediate care.

I wouldn't go to an NP for something serious. But i am young and healthy. i do my yearly lady physical with an NP. I get in quicker to see her, i feel like she knows me.

NP's have their place in the medical field. and i can see how someone would take offense to this. i work with an NP in cardiac surgery, she does amazing and helps out the docs a lot. they go to her with questions often

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
I may be a new as a nurse, but if you are gloating about how, as if it were supposed to be a "news flash," that a lot of people are disagreeing with me, then I think you need experience more badly than I do. It signifies that you need to grow up. :cool:

The purpose of this thread was not to "focus angst into getting people to agree with me." The purpose of this thread was to gather other people's *substantiated* opinions on a discussion that I thought was interesting and worthwhile. Several people in this thread have thanked me for the thought-provoking discussion and posted some legitimate rationales in disagreement, and I thank those people for being respectful, intelligent, and being able to see the larger picture.

The rest of the people in this thread seem to be NPs, NP students, or NP-lovers who got offended by the discussion, attacked me personally, posted faerie-tale stories about some prodigal NP they know, all in an effort to feel that their role is validated. That sort of coping mechanism was expected.

However, I don't feel that "filling the gap of PCPs" and "shortening wait times" and "being less costly" is a sustainable or respectable role. It resounds of settling for someone less educated and less trained due to convenience. By contrast, the bedside nurse has a real identity and a rather irreplaceable role. The NP is there to sub in for someone else's role. That is why I think the concept of NPs is flawed. They have no identity and unlike MDs, are forced into specializing in treating only a certain demographic or age group of patients. Truly, I see regular RNs as being more useful than them. My feelings toward NPs are "what's the point... just be an MD."

The thing about people's opinions? They don't have to be "substantiated" to please you. My opinion is mine, I don't have to substantiate it at all.

You seem to have a tremendous chip on your shoulder, which is sad.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I also feel the NP role is very valuable and necessary at this point in time but would agree with the responser who wrote that for now all the new graduate nurses getting into NP programs without actual nursing experience give the profession a bad reputation and they are not practitioners I want to work with or will see as a patient.

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Another value of NP's is that in critical shortage areas- for instance inner city and rural areas, midlevel providers are key to ensuring access to primary care. The federal governement actually keeps track of shortage areas for primary care providers, and it's mostly inner city and rural. NP's help to fill that gap, many are "home-grown". I realize it probably seems inconceivable to the normal suburbanite that there are actually places in America that don't have enough doctors, but it's true.

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I also feel the NP role is very valuable and necessary at this point in time but would agree with the responser who wrote that for now all the new graduate nurses getting into NP programs without actual nursing experience give the profession a bad reputation and they are not practitioners I want to work with or will see as a patient.

Well, now this may make the posters comment make some sense, if this is actually the reasoning behind it. OP are you frustrated with seeing new grad RN's go straight from BSN to MSN without going through the field?? If so are you assuming that all NP's do this??

Otherwise I do not think that you have given any pertinent evidence that points to the position being "useless"?? What say you OP??

One thing I would like to point out though, just because you or who ever does not feel that these type of individuals can do a good job does not mean they can't. Talent comes in many forms, some people are able to pick up the necessary skill to do a job without necessarily working in the field prior to educational training. Then to from what I have heard alot comes from acutally working with patients. Personally I would get some bedside experience before pursuing a MSN, but that is just me. Just a thought...:smokin:

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Some people are brainwashed. Just because someone is a doctor(MD) it doesn't mean they know it all.People tend to think that only smart people go to medical school, not true at all. Doctors diagnose and prescribe ; nurses treat the symptoms of the disease and so much more, no big difference. I am sure some nurses with years of experience can find the right diagnosis without a problem.there are many reasons why people choose to be NP, Some people choose DNP programs bc they want higher education, more money, tired of bedside nursing, change is good sometimes.

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Funny Story: When my 80 year old grandmother was still living she went to the doctor and the NP walked in the room. Big mistake, lol! She told her to leave because she came to the doctor to see the doctor not the "pract-shioneer"! (yeah, thats how she pronounced it). They made that mistake a couple other times when she came there. You would think they would remember her, lol! :)

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Funny Story: When my 80 year old grandmother was still living she went to the doctor and the NP walked in the room. Big mistake, lol! She told her to leave because she came to the doctor to see the doctor not the "pract-shioneer"! (yeah, thats how she pronounced it). They made that mistake a couple other times when she came there. You would think they would remember her, lol! :)

How was that a mistake?Should the NP have apologised because, bless her heart, your grandmother did not want her services?

The way I see it,she was at the right place at the right time,( her place of work), your grandma did not want her services, so yup, she would have to SPECIFICALLY request the doctor only or truth be told, I'd have kept on sending the NP in.

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