EMT-B calling himself a 'Medic' in Indiana

[MariB]

We have NPs in our emergency rooms now and I Love it! It freed up the clinic for more appointments, the NPs are not rushing and the few we have are amazing. There are times, with my daughter especially they go ahead and call in the physician, but in general, bringing the m into our hospital has been great. We are rural and really can't find doctors to staff an ER 24 hours a day.

[island emt]

Most of the ER's here have mid level providers in addition to Dr's

We have PA's & NPs working side by side with the medical staff.

They allow more folks to be seen and some have specialties that the ER docs don't necessarily have training in.

[ERDoc]

My group hires them too and they are great for the most part. The big issue with the DNP movement and independent practice is that most are not adding any courses that involve basic medical sciences, they are more nursing based (nursing research, nursing leadership/admin).

[scubanurse]

My program has advanced pathophysiology, advanced assessment, and pharmacology for the prescribing provider. We'll see what all that means in about a year or so!

[chbare]

Those three courses have been a fairly standard part of most nurse practitioner core curricula (MS prepared). The DNP doesn't seem to address basic medical sciences beyond what MS prepared NP's already have. I've seen a few DNP programmes that involved 9 months of online courses.

[scubanurse]

I didn't know. I didn't start looking at programs until this past summer. I don't know why there hasn't been more of a change with the change in degree type. I'm happy to just have an NP with no D:).

[chbare]

Yeah, the DNP is a strange animal. Many people call it a "clinical" doctorate and do not associate it with a PhD. Anecdotally, it seems to be an add on degree that allows one to be called "doctor" and pushes an agenda of completely independent nursing practice. It's going in a concerning direction, but with the implementation of affordable health care, I'm not sure the trend will stop.

[ERDoc]

Thank you chbare, you explained it much more eloquently that I can.

[triemal04]

Yeah, the DNP is a strange animal. Many people call it a "clinical" doctorate and do not associate it with a PhD. Anecdotally, it seems to be an add on degree that allows one to be called "doctor" and pushes an agenda of completely independent nursing practice. It's going in a concerning direction, but with the implementation of affordable health care, I'm not sure the trend will stop.

This. Nothing but this. There is no clinically relevant reason for the additional courses or the quest to be called "doctor" in a clinical setting other than trying to be seen as no different, and just as good as a MD/DO. With less than half the relevant medical education, or even education in general, to say nothing of the difference in clinical hours.

If the people at the top of the nursing community would just focus on nursing for a change instead of everything else, perhaps they might make even more meaningful changes.

Edited January 6, 2014 by triemal04

[scubanurse]

It may not be nationally mandated but my program grew by almost double the clinical hours required for those graduating after 2015. I know it's not much, but the clinical experience can't hurt.

I've always wanted NP and not MD which is why I went to nursing school and not medical school. I don't want to be called a doctor because I like the nursing line of thought better, but that's just me. I work with some awesome NP, PA, and MD's and also some not so great ones on all levels. I prefer dealing with NP's though because I feel like we speak the same language and for the most part they are more trusting of the nursing assessment and judgement.