An article appeared today in the New York Times as a followup to a bill passed in New York granting nurse practitioners the right to provide primary care without the oversight of a physician. The authors of the bill state "mandatory collaboration with a physician no longer serves a clinical purpose and reduces much-needed access to primary care". The need for more primary care providers is due to the shortage of primary-care physicians, the aging boomer population, and the Affordable Care Act.
Although the president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners feels that the current "hierarchical, physician-centric structure" is not necessary, many physicians disagree citing that the clinical importance of the physician's expertise is being underestimated and that the cost-effectiveness of nurse practitioners is being over-estimated.
Many physicians also feel that "nurse practitioners are worthy professionals and are absolutely essential to patient care. But they are not doctors."
What are your thoughts on this? Where do nurse practitioners fit into the healthcare hierarchy?
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
This is what physicians and future physicians think of you guys/gals... They think you are jokes...
Wow, you are under the impression that the yahoos over at ******** represent the opinions of some, many, all physicians? (shakes head in dismay). You poor misguided soul.
Besides are we supposed to give a rat's hind end what physicians opinions are? Why? I don't.
I used to work in the OR and there was a spine surgeon who never wanted a CRNA in his case... He always request a MD/DO anesthesiologist. After looking closely at these NP/CRNA curricula, I understand why he was doing that....
"Time to be a surgeon then. All my years of playing vidya games might finally pay off!"
I am really concerned about the posts of these wannabe doctors who are fussing about the fact they are going to lose their jobs to NPs. Just like you, none of them experience or perspective and because they lack any evidence of physician superiority they hide behind their arrogance not quite realizing they are importers and as students have nothing to be arrogant about.
I used to work in the OR and there was a spine surgeon who never wanted a CRNA in his case... He always request a MD/DO anesthesiologist. After looking closely at these NP/CRNA curricula, I understand why he was doing that....
One time my cousin's best friends former roommate knew this guy...
"Time to be a surgeon then. All my years of playing vidya games might finally pay off!"
I am really concerned about the posts of these wannabe doctors who are fussing about the fact they are going to lose their jobs to NPs. Just like you, none of them experience or perspective and because they lack any evidence of physician superiority they hide behind their arrogance not quite realizing they are importers and as students have nothing to be arrogant about.
I couldn't agree more. Let's take another example from my own background as a lawyer with 11 years of experience. There are many areas where paralegals perform very much like lawyers, divorce for example. The lawyers hate this because "paralegals aren't lawyers." As a lawyer I can tell you this is baloney. You can have sloppy, lazy paralegals. You can have sloppy, lazy lawyers. Just because someone carries the title of attorney does not make them a superior practitioner to any paralegal. I'm sure the same is true of doctors, NPs and PAs. The title has very little to do with the quality of the practitioner.
The reason lawyers talk trash about paralegals isn't because paralegals are "subpar," it's because they see paralegals infringing on their turf. Lawyers fear paralegals, too, because a good, diligent, paralegal provides at least the same (if not better) quality service at a cheaper price. Doctors fear mid levels (operating in the realm of primary care) for the same reason.
Last time I checked, NPs are midlevel providers (if I can call them that).
APNs are not mid-level anything. APNs can and do provide care with or without the need of working with physicians. Referring to APNs as mid-levels just perpetuates the myth that APNs need physicians to provide care.
CRNAs have been around decades longer than this term was even invented and have been providing independent anesthesia care for 150 years.
I used to work in the OR and there was a spine surgeon who never wanted a CRNA in his case... He always request a MD/DO anesthesiologist. After looking closely at these NP/CRNA curricula, I understand why he was doing that....
Anecdotal evidence means nothing. I was often requested by many surgeons to work in their rooms. Does that mean all those surgeons think MDAs were incompetent?
PMFB-RN, RN
5,351 Posts
Wow, you are under the impression that the yahoos over at ******** represent the opinions of some, many, all physicians? (shakes head in dismay). You poor misguided soul.
Besides are we supposed to give a rat's hind end what physicians opinions are? Why? I don't.