eugenie98

Becoming a primary care physician requires a 4 year undergraduate degree, completing the premed curriculum (inorganic chem, organic chem, physics, calculus, bio I and II), 1.5-2 years of didactics, and 5 years of clinicals (1.5-2 years sciences in med school, MS 3 and 4 clinical rotations, PGY1-3 of residency). Becoming a PA generally requires a 4 year undergraduate degree, completing the premed curriculum, 1000 hours of patient care in some capacity (EMT, respiratory therapist, tech, etc..), 1 year of didactics, 1 year of clinicals Becoming an NP generally requires completing the prenursing curriculum (A&P I and II, psych, microbiology, chem I), a BSN which includes 1 year of nursing didactics (600 hours) and 1 year of clinicals (600 hours), and an MSN which includes 1 year of nursing didactics (600 hours) and 1 year of clinicals (600 hours). So, I'd venture that PA's are better prepared didactically speaking, NP's are better prepared clinically speaking. Perhaps each program type could learn from the other, the clinical element perhaps could use enhancement on the PA side since they're coming from a tech or EMT background, MSN NP programs could use some more stringent science requirements, maybe a semester of orgo, since NP's can, after all, prescribe meds...

lol, I guess the NP's realized working under a "professional" salary scheme meant being screwed over by administrators versus a "blue collar" shift scheme where every OT hour is compensated. Unfortunately the original covenant in professional salary schemes that one stays as many hours as required to get the job done without OT in exchange for certain privileges, such as not being screwed over seems to have disappeared thanks to the bean counters and managed care. Seems like only the ED physicians have realized this... wonder when the rest will... it must suck to go through 4 years of undergraduate, 4 years of medical, and 4 years making $12.50 an hour as a resident to realize you've just won the opportunity to work around 55 hours per week making about $10 an hour more than the nurses while enjoying $250k in in debt and eight years of foregone income. I feel bad for the primary care docs, they seem woefully underpaid. Just the other day I read that pediatric dentists make about 3x as much as pediatricians ($380k vs. $150k) for 2/3 the hours (38 hours on average versus 52). I wonder though, with the increasing privileges and scope of PA's and NP's, perhaps this will allow primary care physicians to [finally] unionize without worrying that all their patients will die in their absence. So perhaps they can finally demand pay raises. Thoughts?

Ahhh, the decision is coming in April? Perhaps that explains why DCN instructed me to contact them in May. I hope they keep their approval, the program looks great.

Hi all, I'm an EMT-B that's been roaming the boards since January and after reading the DCN posts I finally decided to apply to the Deaconess online ADN program at the start of February. I spoke to Michelle Piercy, the admissions counselor, and was told they are not accepting applications right now (as of mid-February 2006) and won't know when the next start date will be until early May. So.. I guess my question is.. what are the usual start dates and corresponding application deadlines for the Deaconess online ADN program? Thanks, Gene