CloudStrife012 t1_itdti98 wrote on October 22, 2022 at 9:51 PM

Nurse Practitioners notoriously make numerous mistakes. Their education is severely lacking and certainly not enough to adequately serve as a PCP. See a real doctor.

DunWithMyKruger t1_ite3dqn wrote on October 22, 2022 at 11:07 PM

OP, I agree with this person. In general, nurse practitioners (NP's) have very little clinical training compared to physicians. Even if an NP worked as a registered nurse prior to becoming an NP, a registered nurse is not trained to do the following: know which labs/tests to order, interpret those tests, make diagnoses, choose the correct medication/treatments. Those are skills that take years and thousands of hours to master. It simply cannot be done in the 500 hours that NPs get during their post-RN schooling. If one does the math (500 hours/40 hours a week) = 12.5 weeks. An NP has a total of 12 weeks (so 3 months) of training in the above skills before seeing patients.

Meanwhile, physicians get minimum 15,000 hours of hands-on training in the above skills before they go out and take care of patients. (That's 15,000 hours/40 hours a week = 375 weeks = 7 years.) OP, your health is one of the most important things. I highly recommend always seeing a physician (MD or DO) only. I think most people would much rather entrust the health of themselves and their loved ones to a person with minimum 7 years of training rather than to a person with only 3 months of training.

C0Ghost t1_itdzb83 wrote on October 22, 2022 at 10:36 PM

Making such a universal statement is really not accurate

CloudStrife012 t1_ite46us wrote on October 22, 2022 at 11:13 PM

It is, though. The biggest con in the healthcare system right now is NP's being hired en masse and replacing what would otherwise be a physician. NP's do not possess the knowledge to do what their job is asking of them. See r/Noctor

They can use some of the same billing codes as physicians, so hospital systems run by MBA's are increasingly utilizing them to cut costs. Seriously, I am not just saying this. I work with a lot of NP's. Do not trust them with your health.

Some NP schools have 100% acceptance rates, are entirely online, and can be done in 1-2 years. There's nothing but multiple choice tests which allow retakes. They give these students "doctorates" and then they go around in a white coat cosplaying as doctors. They don't even know what they don't know.