PNP contract wording??

Specialties NP

Published

Hi,

I am a new pediatric NP and I just received my first contract for a position in a pediatric practice (that is a part of a larger medical group, think Kaiser, Sutter Health, etc and is affiliated with a hospital).

A few things - throughout the entire document, the wording says "Family Nurse Practitioner" (which I am not, I'm acknowledged by the board of nursing as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner). I called back and asked about it but was told that "all of their contracts say family NP for their mid-levels regardless of their specialty".

Is this...appropriate? Or would it not be legal for me to sign the document if I'm not an FNP (even though they are telling me it's ok).

I want them to change the wording so it either reflects my PNP certification/license or just have it say NP to be more general. Is this just me being too nit-picky?

(Also, they had the wrong medical license # and DEA license listed on the contract so they will have to edit the document again anyway. I'm not comfortable signing a document with the incorrect information on it!)

Looking for some advice - does the wording of FNP vs PNP on a contract really "not matter" as they tell me?

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Specializes in Critical Care/Coronary Care Unit,.

Since you'll be signing a legal document, wording is everything. They should either use a generic term like nurse practitioner or pediatric nurse practitioner. The state acknowledges you as a PNP not a FNP. You should share your concerns with the hiring manager and if necessary, present them with your own contract.

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Specializes in Emergency.

I would probably cross out Family & replace it with pediatric or just leave it crossed out and initial each change. That would make the document correct. I would add a note that since I am a pediatric nurse practitioner, I could not legally sign as a family nurse practitioner. I would also do the same to correct the license #, DEA # and anything else that was incorrect on it. They could choose to accept the marked up document as final, or to redo the document to correct their errors. Typically, multiple errors/typos like this end up getting a fixed version, but it is not legally necessary as long as each change is marked through and then initialed by both parties.

NOTE: legal advice from a nurse..... lol

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Thank you both for your input! Yeah, i thought it was weird that the executive assistant kept insisting that "all of their mid-level providers are placed under family"....but I think she was misinterpreting what I was referring to.

Still working on getting some sort of change...has any other new NPs ever had this problem with their contracts??

I still feel like I'm being judged for being hung up on wording but it's important right??

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Just as an update--we ended up agreeing that I could cross out and initial "family" in the contract and leave it at the more ambiguous "nurse practitioner". I think the issue was that they were simply using generic template contracts, with a front page that outlined more specific details. I had them change my specialty to "Family Medicine/Pediatrics"--which I is still questionable but at least pediatrics is in there.

I am wondering if other PNPs or other NPs have had any trouble with "template contracts" used by large organizations?

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