Barriers to the nurse practitioner movement: problems of women in a woman's field.

Barriers to the nurse practitioner movement are explored in this article. Historically, the subordination of women and the sex segregation of nursing and medicine have helped to establish interaction patterns between the two professions which included a subordination of nurses as well as informal doctor-nurse games. These patterns were reinforced by hospital training schools and state laws which restricted the roles of nurses. Recent changes in state movement, but the stereotyped communication patterns between nurses and physicians remain as a barrier to the full use of the talents of nurses in practitioner roles.