DireWolf said:
This article speaks volumes, but before you even read it, just look at the title:
The nurse is in: Nurse practitioners filling void in primary care
Let us step back for a moment and not question the credibility of education of say a nurse practicioner or midlevel provider. Rather, let us ask one big question, why do they exist? Why are nurse practicioners out there running primary care clinics?
Survery says, hold on folks, this might be a shocker-------------
Lisecened MD and DO's are not!
SLAM!!!
There is a huge need and demand for primary care but the number of MD/DO providers choosing this specialty is sadly falling. Worse yet, for those that do have an interest in primary care, they have no interest in practicing in butt f&&%, USA!
Why? Money, what else?
While the pay for primary care physicians is certainly more than what the average american income, and is more than enough to help pay back loaned money, it is about half of some other hot specialties out there such as radiology, dermatology, orthopedics, CT surgery, etc.
Although you certainly will not starve as primary care physician, your lifestyle managing patient's care can be frustrating at time, so why choose this specialty when you can make similar money in a different specialty where the the frustration of managing health care does not exist: dermatology, PM&R, pathology, emergency medicine, etc.
All of these new medical schools open up around the country hoping to fill this void, especially the DO schools, but still less than half of the graduate pursue training in primary care.
Now, let us discuss qualifications here:
In most of our states, to get a full unrestricted medical license, you only need to have one whopping year of post-graduate training under your belt. That's right, after internship, you can get a license and practice medicine. Who would do such a thing-------
Not too long in the past, many people did this, after internship, they'd get a license, open up shop, and call themselves general practicioners. When was recognized as an issue and family medicine then actually became a specialty requiring two years further of residency, these guys were grandfathered in. Do your homework, you just might find a few of these guys practicing in your community. This used to be the mainstay of DO's, one of the biggest reasons a lot of allopathic hospitals denied them priveleges, and why it took such a long time to get over DO discrimination. Fortunately, this is no longer the case.
Sothat was the old timers, you certainly wouldn't find these internship only trained doctors around anymore, would you? Sadly, many of them are working in urgent care and ambulatory clinics for peanuts. In addition, the military calls them General Medical Officers (GMO) and uses utilizes them frequently. GMO is frowned upon in the Army and Air Force who encourages all of their docs to complete a residency, but in the Navy, you are almost forced to do a tour as a GMO on a ship or a marine base somewhere.
Have to be honest here, I'd rather have my primary care by a nurse practioner or PA who has been out there practicing for a while than some person who is a doc fresh out of internship that for whatever reason did not complete residency training toward a board specialty.
Let us return to the original question at hand, "am I going to be replaced by a nurse?"
Not if you don't want to be! Nurses can call themselves whatever they want, they can even call themselves a doctor for all I care, but as long as you want to be out there practicing, they can't take your job. They can however take the jobs you do not want, and it looks like that is exactly what they are doing.
