Copacetic

Then I hope you are not an MD.

Spock, I misquoted myself. It was the AMA, not AAFP.
My apologies

"Jama 2000 Jan5; 283(1)59-68"

Also check out:
American College of physicians, 2009. "NPs in primary care."
Quality of patient care by NPs and PAs, Annals of internal medicine
NEJM:(very candid article that most on both sides would agree on) "Expanding the role of the APN-risks and rewards".
And lastly, the most comprehensive, methodologically sound, meta-analysis encompassing 37 (I believe)studies done from 1990-2008 is found on Medscape family medicine entitled "Quality and effectiveness of care provided by Nurse Practitioners"

uggghh. Its objective evidence. and I know it

I agree LATigerdoc. The education and direct clinical care of patients in residency is clearly superior to that given to NPs. But what if, oh say an NP, with 10 years of prior ICU and ER experience as a registered nurse, goes through NP school, and then practices in a rural health clinic (where you are the NP, MD, Neurologist, Endocrinologist, Pediatrician, dermatologist.....out of necessity because there are no PCPs, let alone specialists that will see them) for another 10 years of practice, logging in upwards of 30,000 hours of direct clinical care. What then? Do you still think that your semester of gross human anatomy trumps that real world experience? Sir, NPs are not supervised by physicians, PAs are. NP's are forced by law to "collaborate" with a physician. Guess what? Collaboration with a healthcare team (hopefully) happens every day in every office, with or without a paper document that says it needs to occur. NPs practice independently in 22 states already. They still collaborate. Only in those states, the NPs are not having to pay a physician a portion of their income for the "oversight". Oh, and by the way, NPs practice in 22 states independently AND have better patient satisfaction, equal patient outcomes, and reduced overall healthcare costs (mainly because they see people who would have otherwise had to go to an ER, because physicians who are so concerned about their health that they will scream to the rooftops if someone else invades their turf, refuse to see them). Its been proven in greater than 40 studies, even one done by AAFP. At some point in the career of an NP, even if it is after 5 years of experience, the chord should be cut.