| Dear Editor-in-chief of Redbook, Ellen Kunes: (Redbook@hearst.com) I am writing in regard to your article "Advice Docs Give Their Own Families" in Redbook's November issue which maligned 71,000 American Nurse Practitioners by implying that their care was inferior to that of physicians. Research has found that health care delivered by NP's is equal to or better than that of physicians. In a meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal, researchers found that patients were more satisfied with their care if it was delivered by a Nurse Practitioner (NP) than by a physician. Compared to physicians, NP's read X-rays equally well, identified more physical abnormalities, communicated better, gave patients more information and taught patients how to provide their own self-care better. I suggest that as reparation to the nursing profession, your writers follow around some Nurse Practitioners for a day to learn about nursing science so that they may write about the nursing profession more accurately in the future. Certainly, the nursing shortage will never end with publications such as Redbook printing denigrating remarks and thoughtlessly smearing an entire class of dedicated health care professionals. -------------------------------------- See a Nursing Spectrum article about this Redbook article © 2003-2005 The Center for Nursing Advocacy, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |