USA Today Article: Nursing covering more health care

Specialties NP

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"Dealing with doctor shortage

As the debate over health care legislation continues in Washington, advocates for nurse practitioners say it is these primary care nurses who will make up for the shortage of primary care physicians and at the same time keep costs down.

According to the American Nurses Association, as of November, the median expected salary for a typical nurse practitioner in the United States was $83,293, while the median expected salary for a typical family practice physician was $160,586.

Rebecca Patton, president of the American Nurses Association, said that each year, state legislatures are seeing measures proposed that seek to increase the capabilities of nurse practitioners and in many cases eliminate a level of supervision from physicians."

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Thanks for posting that article; I hadn't seen it yet. Very interesting that some physicians' groups seem to be almost threatened by NPs, yet they will admit there are very few docs coming out of med school and residency who choose primary care these days. Yes, we all know primary care physicians have been the backbone of the American healthcare system for generations...but who is going to step in and care for people in parts of the country where there are NO primary care physicians?

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Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.

Oh well. The tide is turning, so physicians better get used to it and pick up a speciality.

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