Would you be just as comfortable with a nurse practitioner as with a doctor?

[Brian]

This months survey question:

For routine health care, would you be just as comfortable with a nurse practitioner as with a doctor?

We encourage your comments and discussion on this question. To post your comments, just click on the "Post Reply" button.

Here are the results from last months survey with 1966 participants:

Q: For routine health care, would you be just as comfortable with a nurse practitioner as with a doctor?

A: Yes 75.99 % No 24.01%

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Brian Short

https://allnurses.com

It's how nurses surf the web!

[This message has been edited by bshort (edited July 15, 2000).]

[seamus]

I work and live in bush Alaska. We work on a daily basis with NPs. I find them to be very caring and competant. NPs treat the whole pt.,not the diagnosis.

[Tracy A. Salkil]

Let me tell you what happened to me. This is unbelieveable! I woke up one morning with severe cramping in my stomache and pain on the left hand side of my pubic symphisis, the pain got so bad that my husband took me to the ER. We arrived and I told them my symptoms. The DOCTOR after doing a pelvic exam on me told me that I had Gonerrhea(spelt wrong I know). I was in shock, but also knew he was wrong. My husband on the other hand was pretty pissed off to say the least. My husband should have trusted me alot more then he did. Anyway, I called my gyno freaking out. You see I was just there in her office 3 days prior for my annual; nothing was said to me. Anyways, I talked to my nurse prac. she said there was no way. The hospital took some cultures while I was there I had told her. She said she would see the results on the computer before they would call me. She was so wonderful! The minute it came up on the screen she called me with the results. Negative. She asked me not to go to the Er again if any problems like that accured. Anyways, she told me to come in the next day and to not take the meds the Quack(my words) perscribed me.She found a bad bladder infection that was not there before and cyst that had started to form. The cyst and bladder infection are now gone and I feel 100% again. If it were not for my nurse prac. I would be taking meds I did not need and would probably be divorced.

[fergus51]

I would be as comfortable with a nurse practioner as a doctor and I think that is one of the ways our health care system could change to make better use of the money it has.

In my experience nurses were a lot more intelligent than my old doctor (my new one's great though). The old doctor almost killed my dad by prescribing him a drug that he should NEVER have prescribed and it was my neighbour the nurse who told us about it. So I say in some areas nurses can be just as good if not better than doctors.