re: Defeat the Nurse Practitioner scope of practice expansion - Louisiana SB 187

quote:

---

And specialists know more than GPs but that doesn't stop GPs from treating patients with comorbidities.

---

Assuming you're talking about primary care physicians and not GPs (of which there are almost none), specialists really don't know more than them in general. A good primary care physician probably takes care of 90% of the things most specialists take care of. Heck, i heard one internal medicine physician, who I admired the hell out of as a medical student, say "I never consult a specialist to think for me. I consult a specialist when I want a procedure done that I can't do."
For some reason, people in America think that specialists are these fantastic brainiacs, but they don't see the breadth of conditions primary care sees. Oddly enough, mid levels fit much better into sub specialist care than they do into primary care. The field is much broader and encompasses much more knowledge than you (it seems) or most people give credit to the PCP for.


Further, physician communication is awful, in general. A patient with COPD, hypertension, and diabetes is probably better off with a good IM/FM doc than with a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, and an endocrinologist (assuming no primary care). They approach care quite differently, don't speak to each other directly, and patients are generally unreliable for knowing their own medications or keeping updated lists- so when one makes a change the other doesn't know about, bad things happen. And this isn't an infrequent occurrence. And none of them are bad physicians. Now, of course, if you get into the "patient centered medical home" (an impossible task in rural areas, where primary care is needed so badly) and large groups or put that same scenario with a PCP looking over everyone, it's a different story.

So, in general, people seem to think they need a specialist for basically every problem when, in reality, primary care is more than capable of taking care of (rough estimate) 90% of what walks through the door. People don't seem to know or understand this for some reason. It baffles me. Would you maybe be able to elaborate on why you think a specialist is better at caring for patients or "knows more" in general than a primary care doc?

We
Don't
Have
nps

quote:

---

Not all docs have Nps

---

Okay. Why do docs hire these untrained, ill equipped people to manage patients and write scrips for them?

Outside of you're little technical world, everyone calls their Family Med or Internal Med Physican "their GP".

You think people are too vain to have a nurse write them a script for some steroid cream to take care of an easily diagnosed allergy rash too?

Half or more of the times people go to see a doc they already know what they have and just want solution in the form of meds. The internet has made like, at least a third of your job defunct and nurses take care of another third.

Those doctors view that term as a derogatory slight btw

We said they're not equipped for autonomous management. That's all I said

quote:

---

Those doctors view that term as a derogatory slight btw

---

Why are they so insecure?

quote:

---

Seriously? Substandard care will lead to more hospital admissions and further burden on the system.

---

Says who? Nobody is forcing you to use substandard care. You can pay for the best if you want it. If you want a "real" doctor then pay for one. If you don't then don't. Freedom would be more efficient in allocating resources.

There are malignant skin disorders which end up in the brain buddy