NYT: Nurses aren't doctors

[ralphc1]

What do they call the person who graduated from medical school last in the class ranking?





Doctor

 

[hoonosewot88]

The one thing I have learned about doctors is there is nothing more useless than a general practitioner. I don't see why a nurse or a hypochondriac that reads web M.D cannot do the same for less coin.

They take your money and your blood pressure then send you a to a specialist. It would be nice to skip this turd 100% of the time.

That is such complete nonsense i have no idea where to begin with it.

 

[shallowbay]

The whole 15 months and 500 hours of clinical training? Look, I could say a lot of bad things about the majority of the NPs and NP students I've interacted with, but I won't. All these online schools that require no prior clinical experience, no GRE, no interview, & 2.5 GPA are ruining the degree. Barely functional people who have no business anywhere near a prescription pad are starting to flood the market. Idiocracy is actually a documentary from the future.


Unfortunately for the community college nursing students, I'm a physician. AznTrojan and I are the only two posters in this thread qualified to make educated judgments regarding the competence of NPs.

Ok, and I've known MD's that have left the US and gone to other countries to get through school quickly as well. From their account, they are more limited in finding places that allow them to practice, but they've also had no problem finding places that allowed them to do so.

It's no surprise that there are garbage schools for every degree due to the free market. It's up to employers to sort through the weeds at that point. Just the same, the NP feels like a free market solution which has come about to try to fill a need.

Clearly there is a normal distribution in regards to skills of people in every profession, there's a statistical theorem stating as much.

As I said before:

Of course there are terrible nurses as you speak of, and there are terrible doctors as well. It's simply that over a large sample you will encounter some on each side of the average, and with there being more nurses a larger raw number will represent the same statistics.

and for the record, I'm a PhD in a hard science so I feel my educated opinion to trust data and statistics over your seemingly (in comparison) anecdotal experience, as you've only spoken about firsthand accounts, is reasonably qualified. Thus, I will continue to believe there exist both "good" doctors and "bad" doctors, and there exist both "good" NP's and "bad" NP's, or plug in any profession you feel like and the result is the same.

 

[LucasWithLidOff]

What do they call the person who graduated from medical school last in the class ranking?





Doctor

Not if they don't pass the licensing exam.

 

[hoonosewot88]

Ok, and I've known MD's that have left the US and gone to other countries to get through school quickly as well. From their account, they are more limited in finding places that allow them to practice, but they've also had no problem finding places that allowed them to do so.

Yes but they have to pass the USMLE to practice in the US, even if they graduated from a great medical school abroad like one of the UK ones. The USMLE is widely regarded as the toughest exam to pass to practice in any country.

 

[shallowbay]

Yes but they have to pass the USMLE to practice in the US, even if they graduated from a great medical school abroad like one of the UK ones. The USMLE is widely regarded as the toughest exam to pass to practice in any country.

That's reasonable. In one specific case however, the person certainly did not go to a great UK medical school. I feel like I want to say Guatemala, but I really don't recall other than being in Central/South America. Adds nothing to this discussion, I just thought this particular person was ridiculous in jumping through hoops so to speak.

 

[ralphc1]

If you look at how modern medicine works, the Nurse Practitioners are deciding who needs to be seen by specialists. In my experience, even when you see a doctor, you spend more time with the nurse who takes your vital signs and asks you questions. When I schedule my annual physical they send me a multi-page questionnaire to send back to them before the appointment. It's like web md. From that information they decide what to check. NPs can do some of the time consuming tasks like paperwork.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

NP's are NOT doctors, period. Doctors are a different breed all together and the process of becoming real Dr. Attracts certain type of achiever. I have had to use NP'S in the military because of the shortage and have had bad experiences. It's not uncommon that they won't even look at some thing you describe to them. I have these two things on my heel and I went in to ask, without even looking at my heel she told me it was planters warts. Whether she was right or wrong is besides the point. The point is she didn't even Fucking look at my foot. I have no confidence it someone who is that sloppy with their medical practice.

 

[AznTrojan]

Yes but they have to pass the USMLE to practice in the US, even if they graduated from a great medical school abroad like one of the UK ones. The USMLE is widely regarded as the toughest exam to pass to practice in any country.

umm.. no.. the usmle is not that hard..

the joke used to be...

you study 2 years for usmle step 1
you study 2 months for usmle step 2
you don't study and just bring a number 2 pencil for usmle step 3

 

[New User 122121]

umm.. no.. the usmle is not that hard..

That's just because you're too smart.

I haven't seen licensing exams from other countries, but from common sense and talking to a couple FMGs, I would bet most countries do not have harder exams.

 

[hoonosewot88]

umm.. no.. the usmle is not that hard..

the joke used to be...

you study 2 years for usmle step 1
you study 2 months for usmle step 2
you don't study and just bring a number 2 pencil for usmle step 3

Well I've never sat it but that's what i hear from people that wanted to move to America.