NP Education/Activism

[Skeptic, MSN, NP]

Hello, does anyone know of any activist groups within the NP community that are actively trying to make NP standards more rigorous? We have so many for profit programs and the amount of NP's that say they are equivalent to MD's is insane. These programs should at the least be similar to CRNA program standards. Which are as a whole tougher to get into, they have less programs, longer clinical hours, deeper understanding of hard sciences. We could go the route of DO's and maker ourselves stronger as a profession like they did. Instead we water it down with easy, for profit schools, with discussion posts instead of testing knowledge. Spending hours talking about founders of nursing and writing papers that could be better spent learning how to read x-rays more in depth, or interpreting labs, forming a differential etc. 

If a group like this doesn't exist, I'm down to start one with people that share my frustrations. 

[SDStudent1]

I couldn't agree more. I really like the PA education pipeline. Less fluff, more focus on the hard sciences one needs as a foundation. NP has unfortunately become a money grab of higher education. Long term I think this will dilute the quality of providers and hurt the trust in the profession overall. I am a NP and I am a little concerned when I personally have to see another NP rather than an MD or DO, or even a PA, because I know what a joke the NP education can be depending on where you go. In my experience, there are many high quality NPs out there, and they all held themselves to a higher standard than their NP programs did. If you just meet the standards of your program, you will generally be an incompetent Provider. Today I would say the biggest barriers to becoming an NP are time, effort, and money, rather than fitness for the actual profession. 
 

If you ever find, or start, a group advocating for change here I would enthusiastically sign up. 

[Skeptic, MSN, NP]

SDStudent1 said:

I couldn't agree more. I really like the PA education pipeline. Less fluff, more focus on the hard sciences one needs as a foundation. NP has unfortunately become a money grab of higher education. Long term I think this will dilute the quality of providers and hurt the trust in the profession overall. I am a NP and I am a little concerned when I personally have to see another NP rather than an MD or DO, or even a PA, because I know what a joke the NP education can be depending on where you go. In my experience, there are many high quality NPs out there, and they all held themselves to a higher standard than their NP programs did. If you just meet the standards of your program, you will generally be an incompetent Provider. Today I would say the biggest barriers to becoming an NP are time, effort, and money, rather than fitness for the actual profession. 
 

If you ever find, or start, a group advocating for change here I would enthusiastically sign up. 

I agree! I get nervous letting family members see an NP unless I know them well. I know that will ruffle some feathers but oh well. We have to do better and I know good and well we are not the only ones who feel this way.