Expanding scope of practice: inter-professional collaboration or conflict?

With the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, interdisciplinary fights are becoming more public with more to come. Currently, the most visible fight is over scope of practice (SOP) expansion, state laws that govern advanced practice nursing and vary idiosyncratically by state. Until there is an expansion of SOP, APNs in many states will not be able to provide services to the fullest extent of their training and knowledge, skills, and experience and patients will continue to go without care. For physicians, the values and identity associated with the history of the medical profession being dominant transcend the policy details and budgetary considerations that might be viewed as "interests. For nursing, the values for trust and professional recognition associated with providing high-quality care to all is central to the profession's identity and transcend the interest-based conflict. A mediator can challenge thought leaders from both professions to acknowledge their core values, to facilitate discussions in which each side accepts those aspects of the other's values that it can agree with, and then build on those shared beliefs.