As a highly educated Nurse Practitioner who is working on her doctorate at Vanderbilt University, I feel I need to express my thoughts about your post. I am very proud of my profession, just as each of you should be. I have a great deal of respect for the various professionals especially those who has obtained their doctorate. So, this is not the start a war between professions, but I need to say there are much worse things to be mistaken to be than a Nurse. I have two masters degrees and Have completed over 140 graduate semester hours and before I finish I will have a boy 30 more. I have 30 years of experience in healthcare and I really wish that Med Students and other healthcare professionals were informed of how educated, experienced many nurses are.
Even LPN's are intensely trained, not unlike the intensity of a year of med school. Medical Students are trained and educated differently than nurses, but they both are educated in science and evidence based practice. In order to obtain entrance in to nursing program within a college, there are many obstacles, including completing microbiology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology 1 & 2, nutrition, and more. They must make excellent grades and score high on an entrance exam just to get in the program. Then they must take an exam and score high enough to get in and they compete with many applicants. The wait lists are often a year to two years long. RN students have many difficult and challenging courses in health alterations, pharmacology, human development, care planning and emergency care of patients. If they choose to continue their education, most Nurse Practitioner education programs(which are graduate level programs, post BSN) require nurses to have experience in their specialty area. Nurses at all levels are required to understand human biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and knowledge of the disease process, signs and symptoms of disease, treatment of disease and prevention of disease.
While taken their courses, they have to complete hundreds of clinical hours so they can apply their knowledge to real patient situations. They must pass a very challenging national exam before obtaining their license. Nurses are usually the first ones to catch a medication error and to observe the patient for any signs of distress. Nurses are trained on medication interaction with food and other meds. Nurses are trained to only give medications that they are familiar with and what a typical dose or side effect might be. They must know all the the processes and procedures for the area they work in order to help the physician.
So while Medical students are still learning about chemistry, anatomy, and other sciences, a nurse working on a BSN is already working with patients. If a nurse decides to be a nurse practitioner then she or he is required to have nursing experience in their specialty area before being admitted at most schools. Many continue to work in the field while completing their program. They take courses in advanced pharmacology, advanced health assessment skills, and depending on the specialty they take other courses that involve courses directly related to their specialty. They are very challenging courses and in order to be accepted into a program, grades must be very high. The schools are very competitive and the national exam is challenging.
Nurse practitioners focus on holistic care, health promotion and prevention of disease. They focus on treating the patient as a whole, including environmental considerations, including but not limited to meds that are affordable and realistic treatment expectations for the individual and their families. They spend about 600 hours under a preceptor after completing their other graduate courses and often while working as a nurse within their specialty as well. Now many states require nurses to complete a doctoral level program. So please, next time someone mistakes a medical student a nurse, be proud. LPN's and RN's are patient advocates and they are highly educated and train and they play a crucial role on your healthcare team.
There are more than one type of Doctorate degree, so, like your patients don't understand, it is apparent that many health professionals don't realize that nurses can have a doctorate degree as well. When medical students graduate, they will be physicians who have the degree of Medical Doctor, just like a nurse with a doctorate degree is called a Doctor of Nursing Practice. This of course is no different than psychologist or a physical therapist who have achieved that degree. So as I respect the medical profession, Please respect other professions as well.
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