Yesterday I saw an NP in clinic for my ulcerative colitis (these visits are mandatory for insurance but not really relevant for care). She was newly minted. Did a 12 month NP after getting an online bachelors degree. Had NEVER worked in patient care before her NP.
She told me I was eating too many spicy foods and that that was what was causing "unbalance" and "unregulation" in my colon. She kept calling it IBS, not IBD - I kept correcting her, until finally she indignantly said "irritable bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, its just a diifferent way of saying it."
UM, NO. It's two totally different diseases with different symptoms, managements, and prognosis.
This is why I don't like midlevels. No-one should be solo counseling patients on their health after only one year of school. If I didn't know better I'd see her white coat and stethoscope around her neck (which she put in backwards during auscultation as she auscultated my scapula) and assume she was a doctor who'd give me good medical knowledge. I'd have left there thinking I could cure an autoimmune disease with fewer trips to the Indian restaurant and maybe some mint essential oils. I would be googling the wrong term, thinking I have a totally different disease than the one I have.
Look. I'm all for nurses with years of experience to be able to increase the freedom of practice and see simple patients unsupervised. Ive worked with some AMAZING nurses and PA's who could run circles around some of our attendings. But fake doctors with degrees based on little to no clinical training is just not safe for patients.