New Degree Creates Doctor Nurses

New Degree Creates Doctor Nurses — And Confusion

by Sally Herships

The doctoral program for nurses is offered at more than 200 schools and began at the Columbia University School of Nursing. Dean Mary Mundinger says the tension is more about turf than patient confusion.

“It’s about status,” Mundinger says. “It’s about ego, it’s about presence. It’s about standing in their community.”

Here’s where physicians and the new doctor nurses agree: Both groups say physicians feel threatened. They see the new breed of nurses as an invasion of their turf.

Fourth-year medical student Janet Pullockaran at University Hospital’s emergency room understands the threat. “With all these new people — physician assistants, nurse practitioners coming into the field — maybe our training won’t lead to a secure position in the future,” she says.

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