1 Department of Pediatrics University of Colorado School of Medicine Denver, Colorado 80220
We appreciate the commentary of Dr. Austin regarding our article.
The nurse practitioner role was created because the needs of children for primary health care were not being adequately met through the existing health care delivery system.
Pediatricians who practice with nurse practitioners have found that the pediatrician and the nurse can provide more primary health services to children and can give more personalized care than they previously were able to do. Acceptance by patients and their parents has been excellent; more than one half of the parents indicated that joint care was better than that received from the same pediatrician alone.