Are nurse practitioners threatening the job market for endocrinology?

[Dakgalbi2020]

I'm interested in becoming an endocrinologist but I have a family member who is a physician that always tries to dissuade me and says that I should be going into a more competitive field so that I am guaranteed of having job security. Their argument is that they essentially claim that NPs are taking over primary care and other fields such as endo and that places would rather hire a NP who can be paid less to do the work. They think this is especially the case in rural areas. To any practicing endocrinologists or other physicians working in primary care or if you know any individuals working in these careers would you agree that this is happening? Do you think it would be difficult for me to find a job as an endocrinologist in the next 7 years?

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

No

 

[Dakgalbi2020]

No

Could you elaborate further please?

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Could you elaborate further please?

There's a huge demand for endocrinologists.

NPs are no better at endocrinology than I am. If my referrals go to NPs I'm going to stop referring because what's the point.

 

[InvestingDoc]

The NP office where I'm located is staffed by half doctors and half NP's. The past 10 notes I've gotten from the endocrine clinic have been NP notes only.

The MD's see the initial evaluation, the NP's see them the rest of the year then the doctor checks in once a year it seems.

I'd imagine if this large endocrine clinic didn't have NP's they would have some MD's on staff.

I'm not in endo though so what the hell do I know. I just used to send a lot of referrals their way.