althcare, this study contributes to the effort to offer to physicians and relevant others sound information about the NP and the role of the NP as it relates to this important aspect of healthcare utilization.
There have been no studies that have specifically compared NPs with physicians in terms of whether the patients of each are more or less inclined to engage in health maintenance behavior. However, there has been a good deal of research examining physicians' opinions of and attitudes toward Nurse Practitioners. For example, MacDonald and Katz (2002) found that physicians are not very likely to believe that the integration of NPs into clinical practice has been successful. The authors feel that physicians need greater exposure to the role in order to more fully understand the degree of successful implementation that has been associated with the success of the role of nurse practitioners in the healthcare field.
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