A nurse practitioner who supervises Foundation Year 2 doctors said she encountered 'strange responses' from GPs.

It makes no more sense for a nurse to supervise a doctor carrying out a GP's activities than it would for a GP to supervise a nurse carrying out a nursing procedure. I would not be prepared to take part in an event where the facilitator refused to reveal her qualifications and was prepared to decieve me.

It depends what skills the nurse practitioner is teaching as nurses can teach a lot to doctors in certain areas and vice versa but I suspect this is actually about saving money and personally I feel this is inappropriate. Garry Savin

There is always some thing to learn no matter who it is ?wheather a nurse or some one else but supervising is a different issue all together makes you wonder whether this is good idea

What happened to Senior & Experienced Doctors, teaching and supervising the Junior Doctors ? Wherever deception is required in a job that requires honesty and integrity - such as in the medical profession, then there is definately something very wrong.

Specialist nurses may be able to impart knowledge to doctors and other health care professionals and be the most appropriate people to do so depending on where this training is taking place. For example why would it be inappropriate for a specialist respiratory nurse to supervise a doctor to perform spirometery - it's not something GPs do very often is it? It all really boils down to WHAT the NP is supervising the doctors to do surely.

I am an independent prescriber/ nurse practitioner. I was approached and asked to share my skills and supervise trainee Drs within primary care, but sadly refused for exactly the reasons being discussed within this blog. Could it boil down to that infamous word that's so dated within the nhs "Power", this is merely a comment as I haven't researched the evidence surrounding power of late. I have spent my 7 years at university studying far more important things that are beneficial to the people central to my knowledge within primary care ie "Patients" "People" Service users" what ever term is politically correct at the moment again I'm not quite sure. I am so pleased that I work with a team of up to date Gp's who appreciate my skills as much as I do there's. We share our knowledge, sometimes daily and none of our team is afraid to admit if there's something we are not sure about. We have an open approach that I believe many could learn from. I feel I have much more to offer than teaching and supervising how to perform a spirometery. I have gained much of my knowledge from open minded Drs and many open minded Drs have agreed they have also learnt from me. Let's just recognise if we studied medicine all our life's there would still areas we wouldn't know. People who think that Drs cannot learn from nurses need to spend just one day with them and then perhaps views would be somewhat different. Team work is the key to best evidence based practice, I ask all health care professional to just remember that.

 I learned more ( medicine) in my first year from my first year as  a house officer from the main ward sister that from many of my clinical tutors.

My nurse wife used to take case histories for my whilst on call which resulted in patients understanding of their situation to the extent that they complimented her and were not heard from again. Discussions with her have resulted in many excellent insights to patient care.

My nurse qualified daughter is a practice manager.

When in full time practice we had two nurses whose care I would have greatly preferred to be under than some of the doctors I have worked with.

Is there some delusion that intelligence,experiece and common sense  confined to doctors? 

Delusion and prejudice are not useful characteristics of any medical professional and should come with a health warning.

Thankyou for your comment Dr C W Spencer, we need more Drs like yourself in order for the nhs to be brought up to date.

illiterate

illiterate. All round balanced comment I do add.please enhance

I wonder if there is a semantics issue here?  "Supervise" to me would indicate that the nurse in question would be responsible for the doctor's actions whilst under her guidance.  I cannot see why anyone would object to a Practice Nurse, especially a well-qualified and experienced one, imparting knowledge to any member of the practice team and in areas where she was qualified and skilled.  Where the argument comes unstuck is if the nurse is left to carry the can completely - i.e. if there was no-one else available who was suitably indemnified and insured should the GP under training hit a serious clinical problem.  (If I were a nurse I'd be checking my personal indemnity and employment contract very carefully before accepting that particular role).  I think this may be what causes GPs to hear alarm bells in the scenario rather than horror at the thought of some whippersnapper nurse having the cheek to tell a doctor what to do.    

7 years at university studying nursing IS rather a long time, and your academic knowledge must be admired; however why so long? You may as well have gone to medical school if you were able to - that's not a 'dig' but an observation by the way. 

I'm not sure what the 'illiterate' comment was about but find it sad that it was psoted without any more explanation.  As for teaching spirometery that was just given as a simple example.  

I agree that each profession CAN learn from the other but it takes a lot for those in the medical profession to accept that nurses may have a better knowledge of certain conditions than they do, even if the nurse has recognised specialist qualifications. It's something we ALL need to work on rather than bury our heads in the sand.

Nursing is not a second best choice to medicine. Many nurses and midwives could undertake a medical degree but choose to enter nursing or midwifery to exercise the knowledge and skills of nursing. In contemporary health care nursing and medicine are increasingly co-dependent partnerships  compared to the entrenched  historical model of a medical heirarchy over nursing that regrettably still tends to  persist. The NMC objective for an 'all graduate' profession will in time increasingly challenge the historical model of the doctor/nurse relationship. 

As registered and practising nurse and a senior lecturers within the  Faculty of Health, some of my colleagues also have  responsibilities of academic supervision   for medical registrars undertaking modules for masters degrees.

As a professional midwife I have many times guided and supported medical staff in maternity care, so please respect the parity of co-dependency in health care between medics and nursing staff. We need each other for the benefit of those we provide care for. Highly trained and educated nurses are to be valued for the contribution that their education and preparation provides to health care.

Baba

I agree totally Barabara, In  reply to Martin I chose nursing as a career because I wanted to be a nurse not a doctor. Im proud of being a NURSE  and will continue to gain qualificatins in order to give patients my best care.My university qualifications include dips and degree in ethics,autonomous practitioner, independent nurse prescribing,diabetes,copd and next chd all qualifications to enable me to be the best at my job possible in primary care setting.