http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=289278
Pre-meds who think that DNP = MD
People who think that NPs are fully qualified to give full medical care.
There was a post on that thread that stated something to the effect of what is scary is that we, as med students, residents, and attendings, have no idea how lacking an NP was etc. It went on to say that it's scary...
Now, I'm honestly not the type of dude to go around slamming other professions. I value non MD/DO's and they have a place in our system. This is my personal view, and I also believe that they are necessary.
However, I was sitting at a coffee shop studying yesterday (my regular hangout) and was at a table directly in front of 4 people studying what was obviously medically related material. In fact, it was down right distracting (I almost moved) because they were playing some sort of medical quiz game where one person would read out a question and the others would have to answer. I wanted to start answering questions for them.... lol
I'm not kidding in that I was almost positive these were junior paramedics in training (no offense to paramedics). It was a while before their conversation made it apparent that they were nursing students. And, somewhat "advanced" in their training because they were talking about the ICU and CCU etc. and talking about jobs etc. The material was such that it covered a wide spectrum of material such as some basic phamacology (as a first year we haven't even had pharm yet, but even still I could honestly have answered 95% of the questions that they were painfully fumbling..) as well as some micro and then some more clinical based stuff like using terms like "parenteral" etc. Again, it was distracting as hell....lol
The point is that the post I'm refering to (1st page about 1/2 way down) is dead on. Many of us really have no clue what it is that other professions actually learn (and more importantly, what they don't learn). There was even a dude in the group (the other 3 were females). He was being so cocky that I almost wanted to say something to this chump. I immediately thought to myself how this guys naivety could get him in some serious trouble sometime. The depth with which this group of nursing students commanded their subject matter was so obviously cursory that I almost felt sorry for them. Honestly. And I say this in the sincere hope that whichever nurses on this board understand that this is a medically oriented forum. My purpose is NOT to hurt anyone or make them feel like sh..t. It's an observation that I made, and wanted to speak to as it relates to the thread refered to here.
Now, granted, nobody's suggesting BSRN-->MD/DO equivalency. But, just as we don't understand the depth of training that others experience, the other side has no idea of the depth of training that WE undergo. It would have been a joke for me to have joined right in and not only answered 90% of the questions they were asking, but also to start pimping (and then teaching as the pimping would not even be fun) as to mechanisms and "o.k., so do you know WHY"?? And, I'm about your average first year medical student...
