The level of vitriol on this message board is pretty astonishing. Yes, traditionally there have been no residencies for NPs but there have been for PAs. Why is it ok for PAs and not NPs? The NPs I know tell me that if an NP graduates and wants further training there really is not much available at the moment. Even if an NP did a residency in dermatology, they wouldn't hold themselves out as a dermatologist.
naominova,
you may practice differently and behave differently than some of your colleagues.
Perhaps you have not read all 19 pages of this thread.
But some of your less forthcoming colleagues *do* attempt to deceive patients, do not correct them when called "Doctor" and have been heard, on more than one occasion, telling colleagues, family members and patients that they know more than doctors. They can and *do* hold themselves out as qualified as physicians. This thread was started because a DNP presented herself using the term Doctor (while, yes given that many terminal degrees are doctoral degrees, is technically correct but when used in the medical setting, obfuscates the situation and the person in question was, in the minds of many, including laypersons, attempting to conceal the fact that she was not a physician but rather a nurse), and a residency program director in Dermatology. Many of us have seen and heard it in our own training and practices. And its not just nurses: I've heard radiology techs refer to themselves as radiologists, physician assistants allow patients to call them Dr., etc. Everyone wants to be at the top of the heap, to be the most respected. Its human nature.
NPs need to work with an overseeing doctor in most states. They rely on doctors to agree to oversee their practice and help manage more difficult cases. Without physicians most NPs would not be able to practice. Most NPs are happy to work in collaboration and have no delusions that they are an MD.
That is true. *Most* NPs are collegial and recognize their role in health care. But there is a very vocal minority, including Mary Mundinger, who state that they are better than physicians, deserve the same practice rights and privileges as physicians and make a living mocking MD/DO training. It is not the majority of hard working NPs that we are frustrated with; it is your colleages who don't know what they don't know and don't have someone oversee their work, refuse to take accountability for mistakes, want more responsiblity and practice rights without the malpractice rates and other things that go along with it.
I've worked with some fabulous NPs during my career but when it came time to choose a midlevel for our office we went with a PA because of all the political posturing of some of your colleagues. I cannot defend a profession when its leadership claims that physicians are unnecessary and that they are better trained than most physicians, and can do the same job without the same training.
That doesn't mean that most NPs feel that way; I know plenty, including many here on SDN, who feel that the DNP isn't a favorable move. But you have to recognize that you have leadership who think it is and that one of the ways to get there is to derogate physicians. We've spent our lives dedicating our time, our bodies and sacrificing those things, as well as time for family, friends, etc. only to be told that we are less worthy than someone who spent thousands of hours less in training. Hell yeah, that's threatening.
Why does there have to be so much angst between the different professions? What is so threatening?
I'm not sure there *has* to be such angst, but I understand the threat. When someone with many thousands of hours of less training posits themselves just as, if not more qualified to do your job, it will be perceived as a threat - whether by a physician, dentist, school teacher or seamstress.
