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Remember the MCAT and the AMCAS?
There is now a new breed of direct entry 3-year Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs that accept students who haven't had a day of nursing experience. For example this school in Boston:
http://www.simmons.edu/shs/academics/nursing/degrees/direct_entry.shtml
Here are the prereqs:
These direct entry NP schools then pop out thousands of graduates who, with no residency, get paid more than double that of first year residents who have both more formal education and clinical training (not to mention the utterly different leagues of selectivity throughout the process). Residents go on to slave away 80 hrs a week for many more years to get the training necessary to be a competent doctor.
More and more states are allowing NPs to practice autonomously. In the meantime, the NPs continue to encroach upon the practice scope of primary care physicians, taking all the easy and lucrative cases, while leaving the zebras to the MDs. The Obama health care bill also encourages the expansion of midlevel providers, grouping midlevels together with primary care physicians as "primary care providers."
The quality of the current generation of NPs might be pretty satisfactory because many of these NPs had decades of RN experience, but can you all imagine the new crop of NPs (DNPs) 5-10 years from now?
Future physicians should avoid giving business to those midlevels who are practicing independently without physician supervision. For the patient's sake and for the future of our profession. We're losing the political battle against nursing lobbies. If we don't do something about this, NPs will be making a farce out of us with our process of premed, the 30+ MCAT, medical school, USMLE Steps, research, residency, fellowship, board certification.
There is now a new breed of direct entry 3-year Nurse Practitioner (NP) programs that accept students who haven't had a day of nursing experience. For example this school in Boston:
http://www.simmons.edu/shs/academics/nursing/degrees/direct_entry.shtml
Here are the prereqs:
- "The GRE is no longer required for admission."
- 1 semester of gen chem
- 1 semester of organic chem
- 1 semester of psychology
- 1 semester of physiology
- 1 semester of statistics
These direct entry NP schools then pop out thousands of graduates who, with no residency, get paid more than double that of first year residents who have both more formal education and clinical training (not to mention the utterly different leagues of selectivity throughout the process). Residents go on to slave away 80 hrs a week for many more years to get the training necessary to be a competent doctor.
More and more states are allowing NPs to practice autonomously. In the meantime, the NPs continue to encroach upon the practice scope of primary care physicians, taking all the easy and lucrative cases, while leaving the zebras to the MDs. The Obama health care bill also encourages the expansion of midlevel providers, grouping midlevels together with primary care physicians as "primary care providers."
The quality of the current generation of NPs might be pretty satisfactory because many of these NPs had decades of RN experience, but can you all imagine the new crop of NPs (DNPs) 5-10 years from now?
Future physicians should avoid giving business to those midlevels who are practicing independently without physician supervision. For the patient's sake and for the future of our profession. We're losing the political battle against nursing lobbies. If we don't do something about this, NPs will be making a farce out of us with our process of premed, the 30+ MCAT, medical school, USMLE Steps, research, residency, fellowship, board certification.
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How could one not possibly follow the other??? That's classic, right there.... you really should consider making it into a T-shirt with a fill in the blank for the number and sell it to all 4th yr ortho wannabe's -- it would likely sell like no other. 
What a horrible thing to put a kid through. I don't think we should be choosing providers who are clearly inferior for our KIDS - not that this lady chose it, but many do. It's one thing if you're an adult who wants to make a bad choice, but don't people want the absolute BEST for their kids? By any measure NPs have less training, less education. Even the people who clamor the loudest for NP parity and independence know deep down that they don't have equivalent education. Saying otherwise is putting politics and self-interest above the welfare and needs of children, which is borderline sociopathic.
