re: How do you feel about Nurse Practitioners?

I have no problem with NPs; they are very good for generalized core and basic care. My mother was a doctor and my aunt was an NP before they retired. When it came to generalized stuff, both were knowledgable, with my aunt knowing a good deal more than my mother as far as current common sicknesses and what best to treat them with.

Now, my mother was an oncologist, so if you had cancer, you'd have been much better off seeing her than my aunt.

There is one big caveat with NPs. The effectiveness and level of care you can get from an NP will vary greatly from state to state. Each state has different rules and regulations around what they allow NPs to do. Some states restrict their ability to prescribe drugs or designate a treatment schedule. At one point my aunt was considering taking a job in a different state until she realized that in that particular state, what she was able to do was extremely limited and she would have wasted the additional education and time in practice.