Attempts to define the role of the nurse practitioner as a new health care provider raise questions about the traditional health care division of labor. In order to determine nurses' and physicians' conceptions of the NP's role, parallel surveys were conducted among registered nurses and primary care physicians in southeastern Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia). Respondents (679 nurses and 597 physicians) indicated their opinions on the issue of autonomy for NPs and on the issue of specific tasks appropriate to the NP's role. There were significant differences between nurses and physicians with respect to both of the issues under consideration, but there were also important dif- ferences within each of these groups. Nurses were more likely to assert that an NP might practice independently, and also had a higher conception of the NP's capabilities. Physicians who were interested in employing a nurse practitioner had opinions which were closest to those of nurses. These findings suggest that conflict between nurses and physicians might be minimal as long as the nurse practitioner movement remains relatively small, but that there may be latent conflict inherent in any large scale attempt to change the health care division of labor at the present time. (Am. J. Public Health 68:1090-1096, 1978 of a survey of nurse practitioner preparatory programs which describes them as reflecting "the broadest possible range" with respect to program content.'0 While some types of nurse practitioner, such as nurse-midwives and pediatric nurse practitioners, have enjoyed a relatively long tradition, there is still a good deal of flux and ambiguity in the field in general.The issue of professional autonomy-particularly the proper relationship of NPs to physicians-has been raised in several attempts to gain legislative sanction for increased independence for these new health care providers. Virtually all states still perpetuate "the traditional view that in the overlap between medicine and nursing the nurse acts in a dependent capacity,"11 but this issue is far from settled, and questions about the proper measure of autonomy for nurse practitioners continue to be raised.Previous research on the NP's role has fallen into two basic categories-case studies of the division of labor be-
Sociologists who have attempted to compile lists of the attributes of professions commonly include the possession of a systematic or abstract body of knowledge as one fundamental characteristic of this type of occupation. The application of this specialized knowledge to concrete situations or cases, then, comprises the work of the professional. As Carr-Saunders and Wilson (1933: 479) put it; &dquo;It is this characteristic, the possession of an intellectual technique, acquired by special training, which can be applied to some sphere of everyday life, that forms the distinguishing mark of the profession.&dquo;In the terms of this model of the profession, the professional can be seen as a mediator between an abstract corpus of accumulated knowledge and the concrete and Authors' Note: The research upon which this paper is based was partially supported by PHS NIMH Grant 10931 and PHS GRSG 560. We are particularly indebted to Rue Bucher for her guidance and support during all phases of this project.
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