Regulatory Autonomy

Hello, I am a DNP student, and my assignment is to present the "con" stance in a debate regarding regulatory autonomy for nurse practitioners. I know that there are many people on this site, seasoned nurse practitioners included, who do NOT believe that nurse practitioners should have complete autonomy. I am not opening this discussion as a "bash NPs" link, I am asking for healthy, RESPECTFUL feedback. I would also appreciate it if you would be willing to include the organization that you feel represents your opinion. For example, if you could let me know if you are a physician, it would be helpful to say which type (primary care, surgeon, family etc)....

Thank you in advance for keeping this debate "clean"....

1) If wishes were fishes, we'd live in the sea. I.e., this thread WILL devolve sooner or later, either by the input of one of our regular 3-4 "thread killers" (I like to think of them as the "Hateocracy," nod to "The Boondocks" there), and/or by everybody else piling on.

2) If you want to present a solid "con" stance, I mean a "con" stance so detailed and passionate that your fellow students on the "pro" side will loathe you (regardless of how much you all mutually agree that it is all just for the debate), go straight to SDN and poke around a bit. You will find a good deal of unimaginative piling on, but there are a few posters who have truly devoted a great deal of time, effort, and passion to this issue from the "con" point of view. It would make your assignment (if graded objectively) a strong contender and put strong impetus on the "pro" side to create a strong cogent argument to refute you.

I am all for the assignment, and for taking the opposing stand. Know thine enemy.

That is exactly the point of the assignment. Thank you so much for your input. I will definately check it out. I need all the help I can get. Arguing against something that you agree with is difficult, however, it will make me a stronger student, and a stronger advocate. Thank you!

Remember in debating, you just have to prove the other side wrong.

Let me ask this question. How can nurse practitioners with DNPs be able to claim, at this current time, that they should be independent practitioners when they have, for a fact, the least required clinical hours and the lowest of science didatics of any medical provider? Also, how can they claim independence when they have no recertification testing, at any interval, to ensure that they have the knowledge to continue practice like their counterparts (MD every decade and PA every 6 years)? Do DNPs want to be the minimum standard or the gold standard? Sure you could say they have their nursing background, but they claim nursing to be distinctly different from medicine. In addition, some may never practice as nurses. A chain is only as strong as their weakest link. If they whip out a study showing improved satisfaction with NPs, then simply ask if the study was done with COMPLETELY autonomous NPs and was it done with a random sample of NPs over the nation? Most likely not.

See how I propose no answers, only questions. Definitely won't win you buddies though. Not trying to debate here, just helping my fellow with a project.

2) If you want to present a solid "con" stance, I mean a "con" stance so detailed and passionate that your fellow students on the "pro" side will loathe you (regardless of how much you all mutually agree that it is all just for the debate), go straight to SDN and poke around a bit. quote]

What's SDN?

Student doctor network... Careful though. It's toxic over there.