Nurse practitioners fault college’s new paper on their role

In any specialty the people with the more in-depth knowledge and longer learning in that specialty should be available

Nurse practitioner leaders object to the RNZCGP’s updated position statement on the NP role, saying it still misses the mark in reflecting NPs’ scope of practice.

Nurse Practitioners New Zealand chair Sandra Oster says her organisation has concerns that the document doesn’t fully recognise the autonomous and the collaborative aspects of NP practice.

In a joint media release, NPNZ and the College of Nurses Aotearoa called for the revised document’s withdrawal until a rewrite to “more accurately reflect the role and worth of the NP”.

RNZCGP president Samantha Murton says the updated statement will stand for the present time. “At the end of the day, this statement is a statement for our members,” Dr Murton says.

She says the college has told NPNZ it is open to considering NPs’ revised wording suggestions but this would have to go through the formal college approval process before deciding whether to make changes.

The initial “Nurse practitioners’ contribution to general practice teams” statement was pulled from the college’s website in mid-February after NPs raised concerns, including over incorrect descriptions of the length and requirements of NP training.

An updated version went back online yesterday with corrections to the table comparing education and scopes; the main body of the statement remained unchanged.

Ms Oster says the document discusses collaborative practice, “but the way that they talk about it makes it seem that nurse practitioners must be directed in their care by a GP and that’s not the case”.

“It is puzzling that this is the stance of the college because most NPs report that they have fully collaborative relationships with GPs who understand their autonomous practice.”

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College of Nurses Aotearoa executive director Kate Weston says nurse practitioners had wanted to be consulted and involved in a rewrite of the document and not “just a tinkering”.

Dr Murton says the statement is an RNZCGP statement, not a joint one, and went through the usual initial information-gathering process with drafts going to its national advisory council before board sign-off.

“It is a statement so [that] members know the different training experience of each of the different professions and understands the educational level for a nurse practitioner and for a GP,” she says.

Dr Murton says GPs are trained as specialists in general practice, “probably the most complex specialty to learn” and it is important people going into the field are “supported by the people who have done the training at the higher level of complexity”.

“This [statement] is basically saying that GPs should be available for nurse practitioners as they should be available to anyone in their team to be able to access information and support,” says Dr Murton.

“It’s not that a GP needs to lead a service but just that, in any specialty, the people with the more in-depth knowledge and longer learning in that specialty should be available.”

Ms Oster says NPNZ’s preference is to develop a mutually collaborative document that “truly reflects both of our scopes of practice”, but it would also consider publishing its own statement.