Syndicated cartoon says NPs suck!
A recent Bottom Liners cartoon joked that “government-run healthcare” won’t be so bad because voters can “keep the nurse practitioner of their choice.” In fact, studies show NP care is at least as effective as physician care. But the stereotype that NPs are inferior substitutes remains common, undermining their care and threatening public health.
We’d like to, but sadly, we realize their actual message is that NPs are just cut-rate physician substitutes, which has been the stereotype of NPs since the beginning. In fact, expanding access to NP care has been critical to improving outcomes in underserved communities for decades. (Incidentally, the other idea underlying the cartoon is that a greater government role in health care will cause harm, but of course, the superior public health measures seen in developed nations with universal coverage show the reverse is true.) It does not seem like the Teitelbaums put a lot of work into these cartoons. We note that the drawing used for today’s NP cartoon was an exact reproduction of one that ran just 3 days earlier with a different caption, and that the basic outline of the lawmaker image can be found in one of their very first cartoons from 2001. But they could at least try to avoid contributing to damaging stereotypes that undermine the efforts of nurses to get the resources they need to save lives. We urge the Teitelbaums and the Tribune Content Agency, which syndicates their cartoons, to make amends by working to educate the public about the true value of NP care.
Take Action!
Please send our letter or one of your own about the Teitelbaum’s cartoon through our online letter-writing campaign. You can also take them on by Twitter to @TribuneAgency and @Bottomliners. Also Tribune’s general manager is Wayne Lown who is at @LetsBePals. Yes, let’s ask Mr. Lown to “let’s be pals” by printing a public apology for undermining nurses with the publication of commentary filled with baseless insults, and make amends by printing cartoons depicting nurse practitioners as qualified, life-saving professionals whose care is at least as good as that provided by physicians. Thank you!
This is the voice of ignorance.
Dear Sir,
I found the caption of this cartoon dismissive of the role of nurse practitioners in healthcare. Were you saying that nurse practitioners are cheaper than physicians? Were you saying that government paid healthcare is inferior to private healthcare and that nurse practitioners were inferior to physicians?
I hope that you will print a cartoon that depicts the true value and worth of nurse practitioners in healthcare next time.
Dear David, please send your comments to the cartoonists through our form and then they will get them Here is the link. https://truthaboutnursing.salsalabs.org/eric-bill-teitelbaum Thank you!
NPs are demonstrably inferior to physicians in every way. In fact the whole reason they exist is on the premise that they will decrease costs and hopefully not be so much worse that an unacceptable number of people will die. No one who is advocating for themselves should want care from an NP period (and my wife is a nurse its not like I am unfairly biased against them I just know this to be true).
Your cartoon is offensive to NPs and the patients they care for.
It’s unfortunate that your team doesn’t research facts before publishing old news. Nurses have been at the forefront of public heath initiatives that benefit the public since the turn of 20 th century
Cost effective care doesn’t translate to lower quality care
NPs are trained to deliver care equal or better than MDs
I hope your team has the good fortune to be cared by a Nurse Practitioner
Debra, you are just simply incorrect, explain to me how NPs provide equal or better care than MDs despite being trained for 1-2 years post college to the MDs 10-15 years post college graduation? How does that make sense? NPs are simply not trained in medicine, they are trained in nursing which is a much different profession