#medtwitter #psychtwitter friends and less than friendly, please stop playing turf wars with scope of practice issues. Now is the time to collaborate NOT create more conflict. @CatoInstitute cato.org/blog/health-ca… @division_55 @APADiv19 @APA 1/5
"For decades state legislators have witnessed turf battles among various health care professions. Nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants, for example, seek to practice independently of physicians and to expand their scope of practice to meet their level of training" 2/5
"This is usually met with resistance from medical doctors who argue NPs and PAs lack the necessary training to safely provide care beyond a narrowly‐defined scope. In most states doctorate‐level clinical psychologists are not allowed to prescribe psychiatric medications.." 3/5
...even if their graduate degree program included extensive training in psychopharmacology. Therefore, patients who need medication to assist with psychotherapy must go through added expense of time+money for a prescription while continuing to see their psychologist. 4/5
"Guam was 1st U.S. territory to permit psychologists w/ psychopharmacology training to prescribe psych meds. Currently 5 states—Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, and Louisiana, and US Military and Indian Health Service allow appropriately trained psychologists to prescribe 5/5
