Is this the dumbing down of the medical profession?
Seems to me the “dumbing down” is already well on its way. Actually, I don’t have much problem with the increasing use of NPs in routine medical care. A well-trained RN with substantial experience is often more observant and skilled than a GP who sees a patient for five minutes, writes a script and goes on to the next on. Most Family Med practitioners really don’t have any experience with extended care in the same way an experienced RN does, and the way healthcare now works, Fam Med practitioners don’t get that experience.
But I have long had a problem with something in the U.S. medical system that is nowhere near being addressed. When you get right down to it, mathematical ability is the #1 qualification for admission to medical school. If you can’t excel in that, you can’t excel in the chemistry and biology that admission focuses on. Strangely, then, almost no practicing physicians ever use chemistry, biology or math in their practice. I have discussed this with a number of medical specialists and most agree with this.
Money, too, makes a lot of difference. It’s one thing to work one’s way through nursing school, but a person who wants to go to medical school has a staggering expense ahead of him or her, and it’s a big financial gamble because not all make it.
And, of course, there is no concerted effort in this country to increase the number of medical graduates. Spots in med school are severely limited.
As a consequence, there is really no place to turn, in an aging society, other than to people like NPs.
