Should Nurses Become Doctors to Save Primary Care? (523 hits)
Do nurses want to be doctors? Of course many do. And I say, if you want to be a doctor, go to medical school. I say that as a red-blooded, licensed, board-certified, AMA card carrying, guild mentality, protectionist physician. But I am also a citizen, a patient, a taxpayer, a public health professional, and a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences.
The IOM has recently issued a very controversial report entitled The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. You nurse readers are going to love this report; many of you physician readers may not. It may curl your hair, in case you have any left.
According to the October 2010 IOM press release:
“Nurses’ roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by healthcare reform and to advance improvements in America’s increasingly complex health system. … Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States, said the committee. …
To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor’s degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. … Regulatory and institutional obstacles — including limits on nurses’ scope of practice — should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses’ training, skills, and knowledge in patient care.” ...
