Anonymous wrote:I don't see anyone who is not an MD unless I already know for sure what is wrong.

"Something minor" isn't always actually minor, so that's a poor rule of thumb for this. Spotting a zebra requires having seen a zebra.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in medical education and have first hand experience with testing 1st yr med students and NP students about midway through their training on the head-to-toe physical exam.

I’ll just say that I won’t see a NP voluntarily…and leave it at that.

What have you seen with placement of medical students into clinical rotations? Is this a limiting factor in expanding medical school class size?

Anonymous wrote:I work in medical education and have first hand experience with testing 1st yr med students and NP students about midway through their training on the head-to-toe physical exam.

I’ll just say that I won’t see a NP voluntarily…and leave it at that.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a nurse who has NPs in the family.

This is a downstream effect of caps to medical school admissions, driving costs of getting those degrees leading to student loans that can't be paid off by the low salaries your primary care doctor makes.

So, to fill those gaps, you get mid-level providers (NPs and PAs) who can do the primary care work.

It's fine if you only want to see a MD - but those will be increasingly filled by NPs and PAs as time goes on.

I'm lucky in that I've had excellent care delivered by the mid-level providers. I've had some duds, too. But I've had duds in the medical profession, too.

Anonymous wrote:I also try to not see NPs or PAs. But recent experience example - had to cancel a gyn appointment as I have irregular cycles and it started and is too heavy for exam. I was told I can see next available dr in four months or PA in three weeks. So I have to either delay my mammo and Pap smear four months or see a less trained professional. I have family histories that make a four month delay - assuming it even happens then since I’m irregular - very concerning. I feel forced into seeing a less trained professional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how the qualifications can be less than for an RN?

There are problems with NP programs, but no one is saying that NP’s have fewer qualifications than RN’s.

Don’t most RN programs have real in-person training? Per the article these NP schools are all online and don’t provide their own clinical training.

Anonymous wrote:As a patient, the vast majority of my healthcare interactions are not complicated at all. This seems like more than enough training for a lot of healthcare roles.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a doctor and this is something really disconcerting that I've witnessed both as a doctor and as a patient. There is not nearly enough attention given to this, and it will be the last nail in the coffin of American healthcare. Sorry about the paywall. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-07-24/is-the-nurse-practitioner-job-boom-putting-us-health-care-at-risk

"Early waves of NP students were often experienced registered nurses seeking to increase their skills and responsibilities. But as demand spiked, more schools began offering “direct entry” programs that accepted students with a bachelor’s degree in unrelated fields. Today the fastest among them can prepare students for NP licensure exams in three years of education that encompasses a bachelor’s in nursing, registered nursing licensing (all NPs have to become RNs, even if they haven’t yet worked in the field) and a master’s in nursing. In 27 states, licensed graduates are allowed to treat patients and prescribe drugs with no physician oversight, even if they have no prior nursing experience...
...Students must obtain 500 clinical hours to graduate. That’s less than 5% of the amount required of medical doctors before they can practice medicine."