Nurse practitioner Carolyn Harris (left) and medical assistant Joyce Stemple discuss patient records at Hendricks Regional Health’s Partners in Care Clinic in Danville. As an NP, Harris offers preventive health services, chronic disease management and acute illness control.


Continued from Page 15 Jackson considers Indiana to have “a


pretty healthy practice environment.” Hoosier NPs can prescribe medications — including narcotics — assess conditions and illnesses, establish care plans, and order and interpret diagnostic tests. Indiana is like half of all states, where NPs


must have a collaborative agreement with a physician who selectively reviews the NP’s work but doesn’t supervise each patient’s care.


Through the American Academy of


Nurse Practitioners, Jackson is working at the federal level to remove that tether and allow NPs to practice without such agreements. When primary care physicians are in short supply, she notes, NPs have a difficult time finding one to collaborate with them.


Medicine can be a territorial profession, and not all physician groups support NPs. Two NPs help Dr. Frederick Ridge see 6,000 patients in his rural clinic in


Linton, Ind. Like all NPs, he said, the two competently handle routine cases, and he takes the more unusual ones. NPs don’t have the depth of education, scientific background or investigative skills that physicians get during their many years of college, medical school and additional training, added Ridge, who is the immediate past president of the Indiana State Medical Association. “They do a lot of things that physicians do and they’re wonderful team members, but I don’t think they should practice alone,” he said. “My NPs don’t want to practice alone. They tell me that all the time.” Jackson asserts another opinion. “There is pushback from physician


groups that feel like we are in competition with them,” she said. “But of course, there’s territory for everybody, and there are physicians who feel there’s plenty of need to go around.” ●


FRANK ESPICH / The Star


Study: Let nurses do what they’re trained to do


A study on the future of nursing is creating buzz in the medical and legislative communities, partly because it recommends removing barriers that prevent nurses from leading change and advancing health care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine partnered on the two-year initiative. The resulting “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” report recommends allowing nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training. “The United States has the opportunity to transform its health care system, and nurses can and should play a fundamental role in this transformation,” the report states.


For more information about the report, click here.


Indiana Nursing Quarterly • indystar.com/nursing • Spring 2011 17


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