There is a
national bill in the House of Representative called "Truth in
Healthcare Marketing Act of 2013," (HR 1427). This would clarify for
patients’ who someone is in healthcare.
Even if they
have a doctorate or PhD, a nurse practitioner, chiropractor, physician
assistant or psychologists is not a medical doctor. If you are treating someone
in my family I want to know your background. I am proud to be a nurse
practitioner and we have a lot of
power as NPs. We perform physical examinations, diagnose and treat illnesses,
order and interpret tests, prescribe medications in most states, and plan and
implement therapeutic interventions.
On the other
hand, I am not foolish enough to put myself in a class with most medical
doctors, and patients should not guess who is wearing the white coat. I have
met only one NP who was narcissistic and insisted she be called doctor by staff. Beside setting herself up for a lawsuit, I
won’t tell you what the staff called her behind her back.
This is a relevant
topic because to be blunt, many patients are not educated enough, and have no
clue to know the difference between the people in white coats. I wear a white
coat now, but even in my nursing scrubs with my RN badge on, patients regularly
call me doctor, and probably only because I am a male. Talk about confused.
Truthfully, anyone
with a PhD or doctorate can call themselves a doctor, but that does not make
them a medical doctor. In fact there are a lot of people out there in the world
with PhDs and doctorates who like to be called doctor, and that is fine.
However, I would never have them touch or get close to a real human being. Thousands of people have Honorary Doctorate
degrees like Stephen Colbert or Bill Cosby and can call themselves doctors. Do
you really want them, a psychologist like Dr. Phil or the guy at the gas
station with a PhD diagnosing your intracranial bleeding or cardiovascular
disease?
Thank God I know
some doctors well enough to ask them medical questions, and I do so often. I am not
a fool and will not pretend that I have the same education as a medical doctor.
MD's learn the
medical model and as medical students they spend 10-15 years in higher
education, medical schools and residency, and if they specialize add more years
to that.
A nurse
practitioner learns the nursing model and may spend 6-8 years in school.
However, nurse practitioners are better and
more equipped to deal with patients in several ways. We were trained to treat
people more holistically and not just in a narrow allopathic or western form of
medicine. We communicate better with patients and their families. We see the
big picture more often. In most hospitals I have worked and research papers I
have read, nurse practitioners consistently have a higher overall patient satisfaction
score.
Most docs love us and as NPs and PAs we
are part of the solution to the primary care shortage. But a few bad apples can
ruin it for a lot of people when it comes to trust and working together.
