Nursing Boards Failing at NP Oversight?

[surgblumm]

thought you would like to read the attached article:

Nursing Boards Failing at NP Oversight?

Click https://www.medpagetoday.com/nursing/nursing/82253 for the full story:

[ohiovolffemtp]

Yet another self serving article from the "Physicians for Patient Protection" group.

[rev ronin]

47 minutes ago, ohiovolffemtp said:

Yet another self serving article from the "Physicians for Patient Protection" group.

Yes, but do they have a point?

[sas5814]

Dunno. It won't let me read it without registering. The "Physicians for Patient Protection" group is an arm of the Texas Medical Association which is one of the most hidebound backwards physician orgs in the country. They are very happy living in the 1980's.

20 years ago they used to yell "people are gonna die" all the time. After they got embarrassed a number of times with that claim they moved on to "they don't know what we know" a bit of sophistic pseudo-wisdom.

[ProSpectre]

The Physicians for Patient Protection (PPP) group is recommended to med students and residents multiple times daily on the various medical subreddits (r/medicine, r/Residency, r/medicalschool), and since those pages have large numbers of followers and lots of daily activity, they are likely beefing up the PPP group's numbers quite nicely. Most of the people that constantly plug the group are vociferously anti-PA/NP (always grouped together as one entity -- "midlevels" -- which is usually said with open disdain). 

The fear I have about this situation is that this vocal minority of posters are likely tainting the opinion of physicians-in-training that would otherwise have a neutral view of PAs. I am on there quite often defending the profession (under another name, of course), but I hate all the vitriol on there. 

[EMEDPA]

4 hours ago, ProSpectre said:

 

The fear I have about this situation is that this vocal minority of posters are likely tainting the opinion of physicians-in-training that would otherwise have a neutral view of PAs. I am on there quite often defending the profession (under another name, of course), but I hate all the vitriol on there. 

I think residents in training who work with PAs make their own judgements, and most of those will be positive when they are taught something by one of us and they become aware of what we can do. I have been involved in the training of medical students and residents for over 25 years. I think most of them came away with a favorable impression of PAs.

The residents I worry about are those who do not train alongside PAs.

[Bohuntr]

I agree that the Nursing Board does not appear to be in the right here, but the knee jerk reactions of the Physician Assistant Board in Texas are worse.  It seems like there was a failure to investigate by the nursing board here.   I went to BCM and we had multiple instructors telling our class that the best way to have a healthy career was to practice outside of Texas and that if their spouses weren't tied to industry in Texas, they would have left long ago.  When I graduated I found out that this was also taught at other schools in Texas such as UTMB and UNT.

I myself was able to talk two Oklahoma PA students that I was precepting for turn down jobs in Texas and return back to Oklahoma to work. 

With the current leader of the Texas Medical Association being so anti-PA, if you haven't read his rants on the highlight of his year being his fight to limit the advances of mid-level providers, it's worth reading.  He pretty much holds PAs and NPs both in absolute contempt and doesn't use any of them in his practice.

I practice outside of Texas at the moment and don't relish having to move back, but will have to sooner or later due to family obligations.  I know it seems like the grass is always greener on the other side and all, but why does it have to be all or nothing?  What appears to be a failed board investigation or knee-jerk reaction devoid of a thought process?

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Bohuntr

[dfw6er]

I left Texas and never looked back.  Definitely not the PA-friendliest state to practice. PAs couldn't Rx schedule II drugs there when I left in 2013.  

[DarwinStarwin]

With the current leader of the Texas Medical Association being so anti-PA, if you haven't read his rants on the highlight of his year being his fight to limit the advances of mid-level providers, it's worth reading.  He pretty much holds PAs and NPs both in absolute contempt and doesn't use any of them in his practice.
 

Can you share a link?

[CookiePA]

I have been following some of the reddit pages as well, mainly to read up on current situations in NY. And yes, some comments are very anti-PAs/NPs. 

 

BUT..

I may get some down votes for this, some residents on there do have a point. Staffing companies are literally making announcements on social media about NPs/PAs and sending them to NY with pay as high as 13k/week. Yet the residents on the front lines are not getting any hazard pay despite bringing it up to administration. The money is coming in from some where obviously so why not give these individuals some, if anything to boost morale. I would be equally pissed if our hospitals started advertising for locums offering triple the money without offering us anything first. No one expects to work cushy hours and minimum wages in these times, if you are on the front lines, your life is literally on the line right now. 

 

 

[Bohuntr]

Darwin,

I have attached a link below that was an article he wrote for NPs.  He has written basically the same article for PAs.

One of his "end of year accomplishments" for 2019 published to the TMA was that he was able to stop something like 20+ bills in the Texas house that would have increased the scope of practice for non-physician providers, meaning PA's and NP's.  I have tried, but can't seem to search the TMA website and come up with it and it's no longer in my emails from their alerts.

At the moment, Texas PA's are facing hostility on all fronts, the Texas Medical Association and Texas Physician Assistant Board.

Fortunately, leadership always changes eventually.  The next TMA President may be more friendly to PA's and NP's, but the PA board has always been hostile towards PA's, as I mentioned above, when PA schools have instructors telling students to practice in other states, as well as preceptors, something is wrong.  Texas used to be a leading state to be a PA in, but a constant lack of leadership from the PA board (which, rumor has it may be heading in a better direction with a new leader this past year) and a TMB President openly hostile to PA's doesn't make me believe that this will happen anytime soon.  There seems to be some delusional thinking at both agencies that they can command you to respect them rather than earn it, a thought process so destined to fail that anyone who has ever spent one day in basic training as a recruit would identify this in a second.

https://www.texmed.org/TexasMedicineDetail.aspx?id=52583

Stay safe and wear your PPE,

Edited April 16, 2020 by Bohuntr