Acceptance of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners

Abstract
Results of an opinion survey of parents who take their children to a pediatrician who has a specially-trained pediatric nurse practitioner as an associate in his office revealed a high degree of satisfaction with the combined care provided jointly by these two health professionals. Parents (94%) expressed satisfaction with services they received and with their opportunity to maintain adequate communication with the physician, while 57% stated that joint care was better than care they had received from a physician alone. Parents were also highly satisfied with home visits by the pediatric nurse practitioner, by her visits to the hospital in the neonatal period, and with other aspects of care their children had received. Over 90% of parents considered the association of a pediatrician and a pediatric nurse practitioner to be a desirable and inevitable trend in the private practice of medicine.