In January, the Veteran’s Administration made the decision to allow nurse practitioners to practice without any physician supervision. While nurse practitioners have a vital role to play within the healthcare system, they are not doctors and are not qualified to replace physicians — even in a primary care environment.

The VA’s leadership argue that the physician shortage has left them with no choice but to allow nurse practitioners to practice unsupervised. However, we should be addressing the physician shortage by actually recruiting more physicians to care for primary care in the VA system.