February 13th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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With the aging of America, it’s well known that there will be a shortage of registered nurses and nursing assistants to take care of the population. It’s predicted that the shortage of nurses in California will climb to 80,000 by 2015. California has just 653 registered nurses employed per 100,000 people.
One of the problems is a lack of qualified faculty to teach at nursing schools. California was forced to turn away 23,000 qualified applicants from nursing programs during 2008-2009. And this week Humboldt State University announced plans to discontinue the school’s nursing program because of financial concerns and inability to retain nursing faculty. Shortage of nurses and closing nursing programs — now there’s a big disconnect.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
July 27th, 2010 by Emergiblog in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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“Physician Extender.” It sounds like the name of a male enhancement product. It’s a term often used to describe a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant. I hate it. It’s insulting.
A nurse practitioner is not an adjunct physician. They do not supplement the care of a physician. They provide essential advance-practice nursing services, services that include diagnosis and provision of medical care.
While some of these services overlap those of medicine, nurse practitioners are not extensions of another profession, they provide care in their own right — as educated, licensed practitioners. Sometimes the only care provider for a community is a nurse practitioner. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*