Ethics of utilizing nurse practitioners and physician's assistants in the dermatology setting

Our current supply of dermatologists in training is insufficient to meet the growing demand for dermatology services. In an era of declining reimbursements and the ever increasing clamor for increased access to care, many practices are turning to nurse practitioners and physician assistants as a cost effective means of fulfilling patient demand. Despite the recommendations of the American Academy of Dermatology, there is no explicit consensus among dermatologists on the educational requirements or appropriate utilization of NPs and PAs in dermatology settings. Colleges of nursing and physician assistant programs recognize the provider demand in dermatology and have begun to implement training programs to address the need for specialty training. Academic settings offer a unique opportunity for NPs and PAs to receive a medically oriented grounding in basic science, dermatopathology, and research.     

Personhood: order and border of bioethics

Personhood is the focus of all ethical debates in biomedicine but there are two opposite approaches to the definition of personhood. In the reductionist perspective, the moral status of the person is attributed to the subject capable of a moral life or a ??valuable life??; in the personalistic approach, all human beings are considered persons from the beginning of life to the time of natural death, which is all human beings are persons in ontological sense. Based on these premises, the article examines the application of bioethics of the person in practical medical dilemmas at the beginning and at the end of life. Starting from the main point that physical life is not something extrinsic to the person, rather it is the fundamental value of the person, the author concludes that there is a moral obligation to defend and promote the life and the health of all human beings in proportion to their needs.