I don't think anyone is going to argue that one needs an MD to "help another" person... I think all psychiatrists, regardless of their position on mid-level providers, realize that the work provided by the RNs, social workers, and unit secretaries are essential for making an inpatient psychiatric unit run.
I think the tricky piece with mid level providers is that there is no clear consensus on exactly what does and does not fall within their purview. If a psychiatric nurse practitioner is really capable of doing all that a fully trained psychiatrist can do, then perhaps I'm going through a much longer course of training than I should
If not, then where do the limits lie and how are those maintained?
All that said, I've seen some wonderful mid level providers on pediatrics services, who worked well as members of a team: taking on the less complicated follow up cases, arranging for the patient's medications, doing the parent/patient teaching on how to give injections, etc. My experience with the psychiatric nurse practitioners has been a little less positive, but I've also met far fewer mid level providers in psychiatry....
I doubt we're going to be able to solve any of these questions on this thread, and I feel that the tone of the thread is becoming progressively more heated (perhaps unsurprisingly given the inauspicious title)