From the moment it was first proposed, the role of the nurse practitioner has been steeped in controversy. In the fields of both nursing and medicine, the idea that a nurse practitioner can, to some degree, serve as a replacement for the physician has sparked heated debates. Perhaps for that reason, despite the progress of the nurse practitioner movement, NPs have been reluctant to speak about themselves and their work, and their own vision of their role has thus remained largely invisible. Current research is dominated by instrumental and economic modes of discourse and tends to focus on...