Dear Kathy B, Gosh, this one really gets me, both as a nurse-educator and as a graduate of the University of Vermont School of Nursing, right in your backyard. When I attended school there, we had it drummed into us daily that nurses were patient-advocates and had a serious responsibility to teach our clients everything they needed to know to regain health/maintain health. God help us if we turned in a nursing care plan without a substantial teaching component!!! At least some of the nurses in that HMO must be UVM grads and I cringe that they are compromising the standards which they were taught. I agree with Marsha Walker that telling nurses what they can and cannot teach may be a violation of the State Nurse Practice Act. Are you friendly with any of the nurses in the HMO? I think that the situation you describe is a HUGE violation of ethics and an infringement on nursing self-regulation. The nurses can check with their State Board of Nursing's attorney and the Vermont State Nurses Association and get advice if they really want to fight this. I SURE ENCOURAGE THEM TO DO SO!!!!! Mary Alice Phillips,BSN University of Vermont, 1979 (calming down, taking a few deep breaths)