Physician supervision and insurance reimbursement: policy implications for nurse practitioner practice in North Carolina.

The presence of regulatory requirements that physicians supervise nurse practitioner (NP) practice and of policies that affect insurance reimbursement policies create barriers that limit North Carolina NPs from practicing to the full extent of their licensure, education, and certification. This article reviews these barriers and offers policy recommendations to ensure that NPs are equal partners in health reform innovations.

Deconstrucción de la profesión de enfermería Desde la perspectiva del género. ¿Debilidad o fortaleza? / Constructing the Nurisng Profession from the Perspective of Gender. A Weakness or Strength?

El cuidado es un acto de vida cuya existencia se remonta hasta donde se pierde la memoria del ser humano. A pesar de que el concepto de salud ha evolucionado a lo largo del tiempo, existe una constante tanto en el contexto social, como en la práctica, que lo liga de manera implícita a la mujer. Cualidades innatas del sexo femenino, como la vocación, la ternura, la entrega, el cariño han contribuido a infravalorar el trabajo profesional y a dotarlo de escaso reconocimiento social. Como colectivo, la Enfermería ha estado sumida en el paradigma de la opresión, debido a la vigilancia jerárquica que sobre la profesión ha ejercido la medicina, disciplina situada en la cima de la pirámide del poder. Actualmente, la humanización del cuidado y el cambio de rol de los pacientes está favoreciendo que las enfermeras comiencen a cuestionarse la situación actual de la disciplina y qué hacer para evolucionar como profesión independiente(AU)

To care for someone is a life-giving act whose existence goes so far back that it is lost in human memory. Despite the fact that the concept of health has evolved over the course of time, there is a constant factor, both in the social as in the practical context, which ties care-giving implicitly to women. Innate qualities in the feminine sex, including vocation, kindness, dedication, softness, have contributed to undervalue professional work and to grant it little social recognition. As a group, nurses have been placed in the paradigm of oppression, due to the hierarchical vigilance medicine, a field located at the apex of power, has exercised over this profession. At present times, the humanization of care-giving and the role change by patients act favorably so that nurses begin to question the current situation their profession is in and to ask what can be done so their profession evolves independently(AU)