Strategies for using and evaluating physician assistants and family nurse practitioners.

New health practitioners are no longer new on the medical scene, but they still present a radical innovation in the provision of medical care. As such, they pose both rational and emotional threats to physicians, nurses, and administrators. Two pivotal questions related to their acceptance and use will be discussed in this presentation: (1) How can new health practitioners best be introduced to office and hospital health workers? (2) How much responsibility can these new health workers be allowed? Strategies and tactics for the introduction and honest evaluation of these new health workers will be provided.