Some states appropriately require physician supervision of nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants. North Carolina is one of these.
An article published a couple of weeks ago calls attention to the fact that nurse practitioners in our state have “little or no meaningful interaction with their supervising physicians”. This is based on published research.
Check this out:
Respondents indicated that over the previous 6 months, 9.8% rarely and 34.8% never had a supervising physician practicing at the same physical site; 45.2% stated that there was no physician review of their care plans or notes. Nearly one-third (30.8%) were rarely (16.9%) or never (13.9%) able to discuss clinical situations during the patient encounter.
Most (71.5%) of the respondents did not share a patient panel with their supervising physician, and 64.9% never had a supervising physician make shared visits.
This is an unsafe situation for patients. In spite of the supervision requirement, often little or no supervision takes place. You can’t supervise someone if you are not physically present with them. This status quo makes a mockery of state law which is based on the objective reality that nurse practitioner training is not equivalent to physician training.
There is a movement to eliminate the supervision requirement. That is the wrong move. Instead, the supervision requirement needs to be enforced; and it needs to be meaningful.
I have a PA/Nurse practitioner on call who I have come to trust ( Care Anywhere PC https://www.tebra.com/care/practice/care-anywhere-pc-963947)
She can prehttps://www.tebra.com/care/practice/care-anywhere-pc-963947scribe RXs and does a more through examination than my previous MD.
I don’t know if she has any supervision. I now intend to find out.
The rules are different in the various states, Fred. I don’t know what the law is in Virginia. And yes, PA’s/ nurse practitioners CAN provide good care safely with adequate training and experience and supervision.