re: How do you feel about Nurse Practitioners?

quote:

---

Hate,to break it to you but that is pretty much all Drs.do this day(not specialists)
It’s called protocols.So many Drs work for hospitals or other health care entities and they have to follow protocols.

---

True, there are protocols for different medical conditions. However, there are conditions with differential diagnoses that a doctor with 7 years of training might be familiar with, but a 2-year trained NP might not pick up on.

For example: kid brought to clinic for sudden onset wheezing, the NP by protocol administered nebulized albuterol. The kid felt better and was sent home. This scenario was repeated for 6 months.

Finally, the parents took their kid to another clinic and saw an MD. On exam, MD noticed slight decrease breath sounds over right lower lung field. When inquired about the kid's history, parents stated that kid was healthy and wheezing started 6 months ago and would have periodic flare-ups and would receive breathing treatments and oral steroids at the previous clinic, but never had a chest x-ray.

Chest x-ray was ordered and found the outline of a tooth cap lodged in the kid's right bronchus. When the result of the x-ray was relied to his parents. They remembered that 6 months ago, the kids had dental work done.

Yes, the NP could have easily ordered the CXR, but was trained to give breathing treatments and oral steroids for wheezing episodes.

The MD noticed:
1. Sudden onset of wheezing that started 6 months ago

2. Kids was healthy with no history of previous airway issues

3. Decreased breath sounds in right lung fields, may indicated a foreign body because the majority of foreign body aspirations would go to the right main bronchus.

It's the finer details that makes the difference between MD's and Np's.