Is It Not All About Physicians with Healthcare Reform: What about nursing and other healthcare professionals?

The President of the United States has the president of the American Medical Association and CEOs of healthcare insurance companies and others at the podium but where was nursing? I didn't see the president of the American Nurses Association in the background and on stage along with the president of the American Medical Association.

Will President Obama include nursing and advanced practice nurses in the push for healthcare reform?

See this well written commentary available on cnn.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/christensen.doctors/index.html

Nurses and professional associations who represent nurses and advanced practice nurses are not in the lime light along with the American Medical Associations.

Is it all about physicians in healthcare reform? What about nursing and nurses and other healthcare care professionals?

This is problem because nurses and other healthcare professionals don't have a seat at the table inhouse (how common are Nursing Staff Bylaws compared to Medical Staff Bylaws?) and may not have a seat at the table along with physicians in healthcare reform at the White House?

Comments

[Jack Stem]

Even more disturbing is the AMA-supported Scope of Practice Partnership (SOPP). This is a group of medical specialties and supported by the AMA are attempting to reserve the right to determine the scope of practice of ALL health care professionals. In other words, they would be able to prevent advanced practice nurses and other medical pros (like psychologists, etc.) from defining the scope of practice for their members. Read what the AACN and other nursing organizations are doing to face this problem.
(http://classic.aacn.org/AACN/aacnnews.nsf/ff1487bfe89b77df882565a6006cfc3f/6edadd21de28c950882571ff007c71e2?OpenDocument#Public%20Policy%20Update) Read Policy Update.

Nurses need to wake up and become involved in their profession. If we don't see ourselves as professionals and take responsibility for our profession, things are going to get even uglier than they already are. The "I'm just a nurse" attitude is a major reason our profession is overlooked. Why would anyone ask us for our opinion when we don't see ourselves as more than "just a nurse"?