Yeah we srsly need to stop debating/arguing, w/e happens with the healthcare laws is not my business, I'll just go with the flow. I'll earn respect from my patients by how good I am, not by my title. Who knows, maybe i'll even impress the physicians with my medical knowledge in the future. i think that's a good way of gaining respect.
Unlikely. At this point, you don't even know what you don't know. And many newly graduated PAs (or pediatric NPs) don't even know what they don't know.
You will be amazed at the knowledge that a board-certified pediatrician has. Residency makes all the difference in the world - and no amount of on-the-job learning will account for that. Residency is more than just on-the-job training. In addition to rotations through various services (where you are the primary person taking care of the patient), there are dedicated didactics meant to educate and expand knowledge (and treatment). Then there's the pediatric boards (not talking about usmle - that's just minimal competence to practice medicine) but the American Board of Pediatrics certification exam.
You can spend 20 years in a pediatric clinic - and while you can become very knowledgeable on outpatient general pediatrics, you still won't know a thing about peds critical care, NICU, or the subspecialities (peds ortho, peds ID, peds heme/onc, peds cards, etc). And believe it or not, it helps to know these things - your patients may need their services or have received services (and if you don't know what they have or what treatment they are going through, how do you expect to co-manage your patient, or be their PRIMARY care doctor). Patients won't come in with a sign saying "I'm a complex medical patient" .. they will come in with vague symptoms and complaints. Common things being common, most are benign or your typical run-of-the-mill stuff that everyone sees. But if you don't have the knowledge base to pick up on subtle hint that this may not be your run-of-the-mill stuff, how will you know that it's time to consult your supervising (or collaborating) physician, or refer?
There is a reason why a brand new board-certified pediatrician, straight out of residency training, will know more about taking care of kids than an NP working in a practice for 20+ years. Sure, the NP will know more logistics on how things work in the community (and practices) and the typical types of families and patients that come through the practice - but in terms of medical knowledge, there is still a wide gap.
To be honest, the training of NPs is a joke when it comes to actual medical practice and knowledge. The clinical rotations (they rotate through my hospital) is more akin to shadowing than actual rotations that medical students and PA students do (although some have taken the initiative and started to follow 1-2 patients as their own students, although they are not required too). Where in the process, will you actually learn about diseases and management? And if you talk to any board-certified physicians, if you go through residency with just on-the-job training (and ignore the lectures and conferences), and don't do any outside reading and studying, even with 80+ hrs/week for 48-52 weeks/year for a minimum of 3 years, there is still a good possibility of not passing the boards. So with that said, how will NPs and PAs surpass the knowledge of physicians?
