The nurse practitioner: redefining occupational boundaries?

This paper explores aspects of the controversy and conflict that has arisen within the nursing and medical professions regarding the emergence of nurse practitioners in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Difficulties in establishing satisfactory definitions of nurse practitioners, that allow them to be viewed decisively either within nursing or medical occupational roles, are discussed. The paper argues that the key to the debate may hinge on professional and occupational boundary redefinition which is currently resisted by some members of both the nursing and medical professions. The idea that nurse practitioners may be an evolving and discrete professional group, outside the currently accepted professional and occupational definitions of nursing and medicine, is explored. It is argued that both nursing and medicine are faced with a particular challenge in the nurse practitioner movement that is resulting in conflict as new boundaries are established.