With all of the specialists that exist in the medical field, the importance of having a primary care physician is often overlooked. Today, however, they are still both relevant and important to your health care. The following are four reasons to have a primary doctor.
They offer a comprehensive approach to health care
A primary care physician is a generalist, so they approach your health from a more comprehensive point of view than a specialist does. The latter often has a narrow area of medicine that they are practicing in. Although they can be an extremely important part of treating a health problem, because they are focused on a specific problem, they can only address certain issues. Having a single, general practitioner looking at your
“Dedicated to enhancing professional and personal growth for allied health professionals, American Medical Technologists (AMT) awards the Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) credential to qualifying individuals.
The role of a family nurse practitioner is a fundamental portion of the future of healthcare. The role is clearly not as understood by other healthcare professionals as needed which results in the disagreement if the role of a family nurse practitioner is even required for primary care. As people are getting older, the need for medical professionals that can provide patient care to our ever growing population increases. The need for the role of family nurse practitioners will grow too. The role of the family nurse practitioner, the ability of the FNP to be able to transition into their role.
Physician assistant (PA) is a career that allows an individual to work independently to treat patients. While the physician is available to reference if any questions or concerns arise about patient care issue. The position of PA is diverse, and the delegated duties may range from surgical assistant to family practice. If a PA chooses to specialize then their knowledge and training is revered to be desired by employers. The career is fast growing and beneficial as a mid-level practitioner for physicians.
According to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, at least 55 million Americans live in areas with an inadequate supply of primary care doctors. Massachusetts has the most primary care doctors per capita; Mississippi has the fewest.
Primary care physicians are vital to prevention. These physicians are a patient’s first line of contact with the healthcare system and they have the difficult task of conducting checkups to screen for all diseases. Unfortunately, it is much more common for a medical student to specialize in another field due to a much greater salary and more narrowed scope of practice. As a result, the number of specialists is much greater than the number of primary care physicians, creating a
Physician assistants work in a variety of different fields from emergency medicine and family practice to specific surgical specialties. One of these more specific fields is orthopedic surgery. According to the NCCPA, in 2016 there were 9,071 orthopedic surgery physician assistants.1 This number accounts for 11.2 percent of all current areas of principal clinical practice among physician assistants. Orthopedic surgery was also the highest ranking surgical subspecialty, and it outranked general surgery, cardiothoracic vascular surgery, and neurosurgery.1(p14)
Every individual in the world deserves to enjoy health and wellness. Maintaining or achieving proper health needs enables individuals to be productive at work and leisure. Traditionally, many people have had barriers obtaining adequate healthcare due to economic constraints or personal inconveniences. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to the Americans continues to be debated amongst the nation’s political and healthcare leaders. The aging baby-boomers and the increased number of uninsured people add to the equation of population growth which results in limited access to primary healthcare for the entire public. On the
Nurse practitioners are advanced registered nurses who have been obligated with providing professional care to patients within their jurisdiction. They are expected to perform comprehensive healthcare services from caring for acute illnesses, injuries, and immunization to the treatment of chronic conditions (Cusack, et al., 2015).
There are more than 100,000 certified Physician Assistants practicing medicine in the United States. PA’s have a very high starting salary and get to do a lot of hands on work. After just two years of schooling you can come out making an average of $94,000. Being stuck at a desk all day is dreadful, and physician assistants get to choose what they want their work environment to look like. Job opportunities for a PA are expected to go up by more than thirty percent between 2010 and 2020. When you are a PA you have a huge amount of flexibility to choose your specialization. I know that a PA is the best career choice for me because i love to work with people and enjoy social interaction, i love to have flexibility to be able to spend time with my family, and there are very good benefits and there will always be job openings.
For the purpose of this essay, I will discuss the case of a five years old patient presenting to my place of work with the symptom of shortness of breath (SOB). To maintain confidentiality the pseudonym “Ryan” will be used to refer to the child and Ryan’s mother will be frequently referred to as “mum”.
Having a primary care provider not only gives you a personal health care organizer but it also reduces your health care cost. According to a research at the University of Missouri, 90 percent of patient’s medical needs can be met by primary care providers in an outpatient setting. Going to a specialist with an issue that you might be uncertain of can be expensive. First of all, the specialist might not have your medical record. The specialist may have no idea about your past medical history, physical examination report and social and family report. This increases your chance of doing screenings that you’ve done in the past which results in unnecessary cost. Instead of blindly going to a specialist, your PCP can make initial diagnoses and decide whether he/she can take care of you at their office or need to refer you to a specialist. PCPs also obtains most of your medical record, they are aware of your circumstances and can help you prevent an illness before it happens. According to doctor McDoniel from Palos Medical Group, “The time, money and amount of medicine needed to treat high blood pressure are a lot less than it is to treat a heart attack.” Having an organized health care plan can eliminate unnecessary costs and increase preventive treatments.
to be at right now? Well, he’d canceled it at 1:45. What about that email that he had
According to Healthy People 2012 there are more then 800,000 new cases of diabetes each year, with the numbers on the rise. With this in mind, Healthy People 2012 has identified diabetes as their number five focus area. In order to reach their goal of improving the quality of life for people with diabetes they have identified diabetes teaching as their number one objective. Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of complications of diabetes, Healthy People 2012 has identified foot ulcers as their ninth objective. Through patient education Healthy People 2012 hopes to reduce the number of foot ulcers in people with diabetes, as diabetes is the number one cause of nontraumatic amputations in the United States. In order to
A twist on the "patient's perspective" approach is to describe a time when medicine failed to save or heal someone close to you. The purpose of this tactic would not of course be to rail against the medical profession, but rather to show how a disappointing loss inspired you to join the struggle against disease and sickness.
Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are designed to improve the quality of healthcare services, decrease unwanted, ineffective and harmful interventions for patients. CPG are used to facilitate treatments for each individual patient’s by maximizing the benefits, minimizing the risk of harm and obtain treatment with an acceptable cost. Researchers had proven that CPG is a bridge for change and improving health outcomes. The effectiveness of CPG is perceived to be helpful in clinical decision making. CPG are developed to assist healthcare providers such as doctors and nurses in decision making for specific clinical outcomes (Vlayen, et. al. 2005)