Increasing roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in healthcare
Posted almost 10 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"As the United States experiences a doctor shortage, more patients are seeing nurse practitioners and physician assistants for the diagnosis of routine ailments.
Demands on the healthcare system have never been greater and because of this nurse practitioners and physician assistants are playing a greater role in healthcare.
'The PA, or physician assistants, really are exactly what they sound to be. They have historically been trained to be aiding a physician and the rest of the healthcare team with tasks that can be safely delegated to somebody with a different level of education and training,' says Grover.
'Physicians, MDs, generally have very rigorous standards...and the PAs and NPs a little bit less. The more you sort of go down in terms of skill level and training, like medical assistants, you'll see even more variation,' Grover states.
Studies in the primary care setting have shown similar patient results between independent advanced practice nurses and physicians. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the federal government says that 75 percent of what a primary care physician sees and does can be done by an advanced practice nurse. Grover, however, thinks that this statistic might be a stretch and that the right balance is currently unknown."
Atul Grover is chief public policy officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges.