Primary Care Practitioner

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

The present healthcare system in the United States (U.S) faces various challenges due to changing demographic, economic and political pressures. The need of primary care provides are increasing as a result of increasing access to healthcare, increasing expenditures, and growing populations of the elderly and chronically ill patients. Even with the plenty of evidences that Nurse Practitioners (NP)are well educated, competent, health care professionals who are able to improve access to high-quality health care and lower health care costs, restrictive practice regulations still exist. The quest for NPs independence practice has surpassed and it became a necessary practice transformation to improve the health of the nation (The National Organization

Even though the demand for primary care physicians is increasing, only about twenty percent of medical residents go into primary care (Amirault, 2014).

Between the mid1960’s to 80’s, physicians collaborated with nurses who had clinical experience and those who were interested in obtaining experience. In 1965, low-income women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities were covered under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. This sudden availability of coverage increased the demand for expanded primary care services, but physicians were unable to meet this demand, so nurses who were qualified to expand their roles and meet the demand of the growing need of primary care services, where available to take on the responsibility of providing care. (O’Bryan, 2003) Today, the Advanced nursing roles has expanded.

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Prior to this assignment, I had very little insight to what gatekeeping, state certificate of need programs, and Medicare PPS meant and how they affected lowering health care costs and spending. Thank you for sharing your perceptions and opinions on the regulations that’s were established within each of these laws. As a nurse who worked in a hospital, I remember having monthly educational meetings regarding length of stay, reimbursement and health care costs and spending. At that time, I felt the information seemed tedious and irrelevant to my role as a registered nurse. As a future family nurse practitioner, I can now appreciate the information and education I have gained from both my profession the assignments within this course.

For the year 2020 there is a projected shortage of physicians, a shortage of about 20,400 is estimated according to HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration). Along with the shortage of physicians, nurse practitioners offer lower the cost of health-care which helps many patients.

I feel both research methods are equally important in providing information to help different healthcare disciplinarians improve their practice. Preferring a qualitative approach over ta quantitative one is dependent on the answers sought by the individual researcher. Nursing research studies will provide answers to clinical questions and inspire changes that increase patient safety and care. Health care clinicians will use their expertise and experience to analyze research studies and determine which studies provide credible evidence to support any changes they decide to incorporate into their practice. Both methods have their own strengths and weaknesses and a researcher should rely on their own training and experience to decide which

The primary care nurse practitioner (NP) encompasses six different specialties: the Family NP, Adult NP, Pediatric NP, Gerontological NP, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP, and the Women’s Health NP. Each of these fields is unique, and each has a diverse subset of knowledge. The primary care NP can practice in a variety of locations including long-term care, acute care, private practices, and community-centered offices. The Family NP is considered to be the broadest of the primary NP specialties, as it is comprised of adults, geriatrics, pediatrics, and women’s health. Based on graduation statistics gathered in 2012 from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 82% of NPs elected primary care fields as their education focus (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014).

The rise of nurse practitioners is the direct result of a shortage in primary providers. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Americans’ demand for quality and affordable health care in the 21st century also are contributing factors. The shortage of physicians is still problematic today, as there has been a steady decline in medical students and residents responding to the need for primary-care providers in family practice and internal medicine. However, the number of NPs continues to increase; their “per-capita supply is projected to increase annually by an average of 9 percent” (Naylor & Kurtzman, 2010, p. 894). This physician-shortage trend and increase in NPs are also observed in education. Naylor and Kurtzman (2010) found there was a 3 percent decrease in

All physicians have at least a Bachelors degree, medical school, and at least fours years of residency where daily they practice on patients while being directly supervised by other doctors that have decades of experience and even more advanced degrees in their respected field. After this a physician can continue to achieve in more residency programs in their respected fields; this can take another one to four years depending on speciality. Another rout is to do a fellowship, in your respected field, which can take up to another two years. All together taking ten to twelve more years after your initial four years of Bachelors. Some in the health community believe that four years of a Bachelors in Nursing and two more consecutive years in a Masters of Nursing program with limited interaction with patients, should not qualify an individual to be able to practice medicine independently without the supervision of a physician. The American Medical Association has no problem with nurse practitioners practicing on patients, but with supervision of that practice; the same way physician’s assistants, and surgeon’s assistant are currently being governed. It is becoming more and more commonplace in the health care setting to have nurse practitioners work along side with physicians, and the quality of those nurse practitioners is not in question, but even physicians refer to other physicians for their support, as should nurse practitioners. Just like

Primary Care Physicians became scarce between the 1950s and 1960s especially in rural areas. Doctors decided then to collaborate with the Registered Nurses since they believed that RNs are knowledgeable and educated about health, wellness and illness. The demand for NPs grew, that’s why a group of renowned nurses and medical practitioners banded together to address. Despite of this, there were still some who opposed believing that they don’t meet the standards and qualifications.

STUDENT DEBT: The cost of medical school education has been exponentially increasing for years. In 2008, 87% of the student would graduated from medical school had debt. The average debt for student who attended a public school was roughly $145,000 while private school was closer to $180,000 [5].

This poses a significant threat to an already strained healthcare system. As such, nursing is being looked upon as a credible, viable source for bridging the gap between coverage and access (IOM, 2010). Statistics have shown that advanced practice nursing scope of practice in the primary care setting is similar to medical practice performed by physicians as much as 98 percent (IOM, 2010, p. 90). Nurses are thus increasingly utilized as primary care providers and can effectively manage chronic illnesses with improved clinical outcomes and fewer acute exacerbations (IOM, 2010, p. 94).

Although, some may argue that a nurse practitioner will have to talk to a doctor regarding diagnosis, a nurse practitioner plays the most important role. Nurse practitioners, unlike doctors, spend majority of their time working with patients. In fact, “doctors spend about 27% of their time actually with patients”. As stated in “Time and the Patient-Physician Relationship”, patients were unsatisfied with their visit when they did not spend a decent amount of time with their doctor. Doctor’s get paid a lot more than nurse practitioners, although they do not spend nearly as much time with patients as nurse practitioners