WASHINGTON Dermatologists are not very knowledgeable about the training requirements and scope of practice of nurse-practitioners and physician assistants, according to a poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.
The poster presented results of a survey given to 150 participants at a forum on physician extenders held at last year's annual AAD meeting. A total of 83 surveys (55%) were returned, according to Dr. Marianna Blyumin and her colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Forty percent of the respondents were female, 83% held a medical degree, and 82% were board-certified dermatologists. Almost all practiced in the United States.
Specifically, the survey questioned physicians about extenders' scope of practice, pay, how scope of practice is determined (by state or federal authorities), whether they practice independently of the physician, and how much training was required for nurse-practitioners.
None of those polled answered all of the questions correctly; on average, 44% of answers were correct. Knowledge was not influenced by age, gender, board certification, practice location, or whether the respondent had worked with the non- physician practitioners in the past, according to the authors.
On average, physicians rated their past experiences with NPs as neutral and their experiences with PAs as positive.
Interestingly, more than 50% of the physicians said they viewed both NPs and PAs as potential partners in the future. A smaller number (20%-30%) said they viewed them as subordinates, and a few reported viewing extenders as potential competition.
Despite limited knowledge of these extenders currently, the larger view of them as future partners was encouraging, concluded the authors.