Doctors prep for political issues with nurses, insurers and lawyers [TN]
Posted almost 10 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"Dr. John Hale, [is] a primary care physician with Memphis-based Baptist Memorial Health Care's Baptist Medical Group (and president of the Tennessee Medical Association). [He and TMA are opposed] to allowing advanced practice registered nurses in the state to diagnose and treat patients without a physician's supervision.
The bill that the TMA will work to have lawmakers pass is named the Tennessee Healthcare Improvement Act. It calls for physician-led coordination and collaboration.
'We want you to be able to do what you've been trained to do, and if it's a simple procedure, you don't have to have that overseen, if your supervising physician, who has more training, more knowledge, deems it is a simple procedure,' he said. 'If it's a complex procedure, then you need to have 100 percent oversight.'
Of course, there's another side to the issue and the Tennessee Nurses Association is backing competing legislation, the Nurse Independent Practice/Full Practice Authority Bill.
Among the nurse association's talking points for their legislation: 'Numerous studies over many years have shown the care given by (advanced practice registered nurses) is as good as, and in some cases better, than care provided by a physician,' according to the TNA website."