- Joined
- Jan 21, 2004
- Messages
- 314
- Reaction score
- 2
No, I'm not a nurse or NP, I'll be starting med school next year
However, I have 5 years as a patient care tech in open heart and heart transplant ICU's as well as a stint assisting with CT surg in the OR
Never worked outpatient so it would be wrong for me to comment on that
I've worked with tons of midlevels and don't see what all of the animosity is about??
Who knows, maybe I work at a hospital that is the exception, but it seems as though they know their limitations and they refer if they are not qualified to provide care.
Or maybe the fact that all my experience has been in a tertiary teaching hospital, there's more physician oversight as compared to a primary care office, where they may have more of a chance to work w/out as much oversight.
There are a million confouding variables, but oh well
Besides, I've seen them cover many services overnight and weekends that physicians would otherwise have to do. So, albeit in a small quanity, in some cases can give physicians less of a strenuous lifestyle.
And besides, from society's perspective, we're short providers. Why not have an army of midlevels to help out with the less serious stuff (ie sniffles in a primary care setting) to free up physicians to get more done and spend more time seeing complex patients.
However, I do see the major complaints against them. There is a potential for them to do more than they are qualified.
For example, I'd **** a brick if an NP or PA who has worked in cardiology managed dilated cardiomyopathy with multiple comorbidities or the like.
But if a patient has moderately high blood pressure and simply needs a diuretic to make everything fine, then what's the big deal with a NP or PA doing this??
However, I have 5 years as a patient care tech in open heart and heart transplant ICU's as well as a stint assisting with CT surg in the OR
Never worked outpatient so it would be wrong for me to comment on that
I've worked with tons of midlevels and don't see what all of the animosity is about??
Who knows, maybe I work at a hospital that is the exception, but it seems as though they know their limitations and they refer if they are not qualified to provide care.
Or maybe the fact that all my experience has been in a tertiary teaching hospital, there's more physician oversight as compared to a primary care office, where they may have more of a chance to work w/out as much oversight.
There are a million confouding variables, but oh well
Besides, I've seen them cover many services overnight and weekends that physicians would otherwise have to do. So, albeit in a small quanity, in some cases can give physicians less of a strenuous lifestyle.
And besides, from society's perspective, we're short providers. Why not have an army of midlevels to help out with the less serious stuff (ie sniffles in a primary care setting) to free up physicians to get more done and spend more time seeing complex patients.
However, I do see the major complaints against them. There is a potential for them to do more than they are qualified.
For example, I'd **** a brick if an NP or PA who has worked in cardiology managed dilated cardiomyopathy with multiple comorbidities or the like.
But if a patient has moderately high blood pressure and simply needs a diuretic to make everything fine, then what's the big deal with a NP or PA doing this??