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What if the pt has Sheehan's Syndrome? Then a low TSH means a malfunctioning pituitary and low T3/T4 levels.

The level to pass was also set lower. That's something to consider if this test is mandated for all DNP's. What if the medical groups force the real USMLE step 3 on us?

Take a look at this http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/03/10/cvs-shutters-90-retail-clinics-for-the-season/

Look at any state law. "Physician" will be defined as someone who holds either an MD or DO. Ever heard of the phrase, "It is illegal to impersonate a physician"? You can go to jail for that. I guess NP's could amend the state laws so that they are included among "physicians", but then they would be forced to be regulated by the boards of medicine because the state laws also specify that. Discussion done.

Physician is a protected legal term. Discussion done.

It's called supply and demand. Nursing education can be done quickly, therefore supply is higher than demand and hence lower salaries.

Doesn't Texas have thousands of physicians waiting to get into the state to practice? Since tort reform, Texas has been a very popular destination for physicians. In fact, they had to expand the medical licensing department to handle all the paperwork. It's kinda hard to make the "physician shortage" argument now.

If more states license AA's, more AA schools open, and more CRNA schools open in response, yes we will hit a saturation point very quickly. It may happen sooner than most of you think. One day it's all great, and then next month the market goes off a cliff. Isn't that how most bubbles end?

You guys are forgetting something. At least 40 successful surgeries (at the time of the writing) have been performed so far with this McSleepy system. I read that the inventors want to do a 1000 surgeries. Kinks will have to be worked out. OR designs have to be worked out to take full advantage of the system. Don't mistake the financial incentive to implement something like this. At $140k per year for a CRNA and each room requiring one, can you imagine how much money hospitals can save by implementing such systems? Do you know how much a company like GE can make by selling these systems? You guys can rationalize all you want about why this or why that won't work. If you guys don't anticipate and embrace the future, you'll end up like the carriage makers when the automobile came out.

But you assume that an automated system would use the same room setup we have today. What if we have better room design that would accomodate such a system? Imagine if you will a spoke and hub design. The spokes outline the OR's and the hub is central anesthesia control room. From the hub, the staff can peer into any room. From the hub, the staff can be in any room within 5 seconds. With such a setup, it would be feasible to have an automated system. There is plenty of financial incentive for hospitals to explore different ideas to take advantage of technology. Don't think that anesthesia 50 years from now will look like anything today.

But what percentage of the operation involves "intubate, extubate, bag-mask, provide MAC, insert regionals, invasive lines"? Very little. Most of the time, the anesthesia is uneventful and can easily be handled by an automated system. You will still need people for the take off and landing, but it can be autopilot rest of the time.

Sometime nexty year, Tammy will create a thread called, "Why aren't the physicians treating me like equals when I have an online NP degree" :chuckle

For every good NP who comes out of one of these online NP programs, how many make the profession look bad? Maybe even you know of an NP who you said probably shouldn't be in this profession. That's the problem with these programs. Too many questionable graduates. If you talk to physicians, many can relate bad experiences with poorly trained NP's. Look at it this way. If online NP programs were so successful and strong, why do we have so many NP's who can't find work? You can find several threads on this forum from NP's who have been looking for work for many months. I have no doubt it is because of the perception and experience of physicians with prior bad NP's. The true test of the quality of the NP's coming out of programs is the demand for them. If we as a profession want to improve our image with the physicians and public, we have to tighten the quality of the product we produce. That means rigorously testing students to make sure they know their stuff, ensuring students receive quality clinical training at reputable sites, etc. There are too many holes in online training that someone of questionable moral and intellectual abilities can slip through.

FNP2009, It sounds like you got a great experience from your well-structured program. However, the arguments that people are making here is that there is no mechanism in place to guarantee that all online NP programs are of high standard. Too many of them are substandard and the grads of these programs are giving NP's everywhere a bad name. There needs to be tighter quality control of NP programs nationwide so that a consistent, high quality product is produced at each and every program.

I'll say it again. There are no accredited online US MD or DO medical schools. In fact, if online coursework was the mainstay of your medical training even during the pre-clinical years if you're from a foreign medical school, I don't know of one state that will license you.