Is There a Doctor in the House? No, Just a Nurse!

The medical profession is held in high regard, because of the propensity and ability of doctors to save lives, cure illnesses and generally make right whatever’s wrong with your body. In fact, some people elevate doctors to the pedestal occupied by a higher power when they seemingly perform miracle cures or bring back patients who were on the brink of death. Aspiring doctors go through a long and arduous path filled with a nerve-wracking five years of med school and a sleepless year of internship before they can reach their goal of being able to practice medicine independently. Nurses, who are trained to care for patients and augment the treatment proffered by doctors, can “provide fully accountable patient care across all settings” through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree available at the Columbia University’s School of Nursing.

Open to nurse practitioners who have completed a master’s degree, this two-year course involves one year of internship and prepares nurses to be able to treat independently the most complex patients in any type of care setting. Graduates of the DNP degree are now being allowed to take a voluntary certification exam conducted by the National Board of Medical Examiners that will add to their credibility.

Even as some doctors welcome this move as allowing them to assign more responsibility to “Doctor Nurses” as they’re colloquially called, others are voicing opposition to allowing nurses to practice on par with medical doctors. The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians are emphatic in their stand that nurses, in spite of advancement in their field, should be allowed to be a part of the healthcare team only under physician supervision. They cite the vast difference between the training undergone by medical doctors and advanced nurses – the former are more specialized and train for a higher number of hours during their internship.

The DNP degree is in direct contrast to this view – it is the highest degree that nurse clinicians can earn and allows them to “practice fully accountable care independently across all settings”. The key words here are fully-accountable and independently, terms that are normally associated with the less glorious side of practicing medicine.

As long as they can be held responsible for their actions, nurses should be allowed to care for patients as primary care physicians. There’s no question of “out of scope” practice here. DNP graduates are not allowed to call or pass themselves off as doctors, but will patients be comfortable seeking a diagnosis from someone they consider just a nurse, no matter how high his/her qualifications?

No matter how advanced education becomes, no matter how knowledgeable a person becomes, there’ll always be a certain set of people that refuses to accept that a nurse can be qualified enough to treat patients like a doctor, just like there will always exist people who stereotype women as nurses and men as doctors.

By-line:

This guest post is written by Heather Johnson, who frequently writes on American InterContinental University. She welcomes your comments and freelance writing inquiries at: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

// Thanks for the article, Heather.

//Luke