Nurse practitioners are not physician extenders. We are highly skilled and educated nurses who provide evidence-based care grounded in the nursing model. We are not “extensions” of anyone. We are colleagues and collaborators, independent clinicians and experts in our own right. Our purpose is to provide comprehensive care, promote health, educate, and advocate. It is not to relieve interns, supplement physician education, or be the low-cost alternative when physicians have to “do more with less,” as Medscape quoted one of the study authors. Yes, we should be integrated into health care teams, surgical and otherwise—because nurses provide a distinctive aspect of care that research has repeatedly shown to be essential to good patient outcomes.
Karen Roush, for AJN
