LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

To the Editors:

Thank you for your recent editorial on the doctor of nursing practice (DNP). Its timing is important. Here in Florida, the battle between the Florida Medical Association and advanced practice nurses is huge. The arguments of the Florida Medical Association do not even approach validity: decreased safety without direct supervision, prescribing scheduled drugs would further drug abuse, and other such preposterous statements that should embarrass the presenter, yet with the funding available to them the issues are acted upon with extreme voracity. I agree with and understand the advantages and disadvantages of the DNP. However, other disciplines are demanding doctoral preparedness, which I feel should be mandated for all “providers.”

Your statement that “consumers will soon know all of their healthcare providers as ‘doctor’ ” would not apply to nurse practitioners with a master’s degree in nursing. There is already an issue of nurse practitoners and physician...