Hopkins GI doctor thinks NPs should be doing colonoscopies

Socrates25 · Oct 22, 2011

In the latest issue of Hopkins Medicine magazine, there's a column in there about an NP named Monica VanDongen.

Here are some direct quotes from the article:

"the young woman is unique: VanDongen is a nurse practitioner who completed a one-year, intensive medical fellowship in gastroenterology."

"its reasonable to raise the number of capable providers for the procedure" (quote by Anthony Kalloo, MD, director of GI division.

"departmental reviewers are so pleased with the new venture with Hopkins School of Nursing that two more fellows are in training"

Un****inbelievable. Here's Anthony Kalloo's profile page: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/awomansjourney/profiles/kalloobio.html

Email him and ask him how much the school of nursing is paying him to sell out his field. Also ask him to explain how an NP doing scopes in one of the most doctor-concentrated urban centers in the country is really providing a service to "underserved" communities. Its a total crock of ****.

I hope the real MD GI fellows understand that there will be nurses joining their programs as "fellows" too.

what a joke.

BlindPilot · Nov 4, 2011

Socrates25 said:
Also ask him to explain how an NP doing scopes in one of the most doctor-concentrated urban centers in the country is really providing a service to "underserved" communities. Its a total crock of ****.

While I understand that the expansion of the roles of NP poses a potential problem to physicians, Baltimore City is a very underserved community. I'm not sure if you've lived in Baltimore City, but poverty and homelessness are rampant, leading to poorer health outcomes in the city. The presence of University of Maryland and Hopkins, which contribute to the concentration of doctors in this city that you mention, is nowhere near adequate to meet the overwhelming needs of this city. If you've ever volunteered at Shepherd's Clinic in Baltimore or worked in one of health centers or STD clinics around the city, you would see first hand how much of a need there remains regardless of the concentration of doctors.

Maybe the expansion of the roles of NP isn't the solution, but what he's suggesting makes sense given the need to fill in physician shortages in underserved communities, similar to Baltimore.

Also, I would just like to know if the article mentioned whether they are taking away a spot from MD candidates to give to NPs, or are they just adding another position, in hopes of adding more supply to a much larger demand?

Instatewaiter · Nov 8, 2011

BlindPilot said:
While I understand that the expansion of the roles of NP poses a potential problem to physicians, Baltimore City is a very underserved community. I'm not sure if you've lived in Baltimore City, but poverty and homelessness are rampant, leading to poorer health outcomes in the city. The presence of University of Maryland and Hopkins, which contribute to the concentration of doctors in this city that you mention, is nowhere near adequate to meet the overwhelming needs of this city. If you've ever volunteered at Shepherd's Clinic in Baltimore or worked in one of health centers or STD clinics around the city, you would see first hand how much of a need there remains regardless of the concentration of doctors.

Maybe the expansion of the roles of NP isn't the solution, but what he's suggesting makes sense given the need to fill in physician shortages in underserved communities, similar to Baltimore.

Also, I would just like to know if the article mentioned whether they are taking away a spot from MD candidates to give to NPs, or are they just adding another position, in hopes of adding more supply to a much larger demand?

I live in Baltimore and am at one of the aforementioned hospitals.

There is no doctor shortage in Baltimore and there are a tremendous amount of pretty big hospitals. UMD, Hopkins, Bayview, Sinai, Mercy, Union Memorial, Harbor, St Joes, GBMC are all pretty big hospitals. The "need" is because people choose not to go to the doctor not because there aren't enough doctors.

The NP fellowship is not taking spots away from the real fellows. The NPs aren't really fellows.

Hopkins GI doctor thinks NPs should be doing colonoscopies

Socrates25

Full Member

BlindPilot

Full Member

Instatewaiter

But... there's a troponin

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