From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative
Subject: Re: Medical Control, Medical Corruption
Date: 27 Jul 2000 09:35:14 GMT

In <clw--2607001612270001@i48-06-46.pdx.du.teleport.com>
clw-@teleport.com writes:
>
>In article <397EFEEA.7F5318B2@my-dejanews.com>, Roger Schlafly
><roger_95073@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
>
>> Rich Churcher wrote:
>> > Associating medicine with nursing is generally a mistake made by
>> > those with little knowledge of the subject.
>>
>> You don't say what nursing is, so I checked a nursing org at random.
>>
>>  What is a Nurse Practitioner?
>>
>>  A nurse practitioner (NP) is a registered nurse with advanced academic
>>  and clinical experience, which enables him or her to diagnose and
>>  manage most common and many chronic illnesses, either independently or
>>  as part of a health care team. A nurse practitioner provides some care
>>  previously offered only by physicians and in most states has the
>>  ability to prescribe medications. Working in collaboration with a
>>  physician, a nurse practitioner provides high-quality, cost-effective
>>  and individualized care for the lifespan of patient's special needs.
>>
>> American College of Nurse Practitioners
>> http://www.nurse.org/acnp/
>
>First look at where you got your definition.  It would seem that that
>group will have a good reason to make the "Nurse Practioner" sound like a
>nurse with the capabilities of a physician.  Nursing school is four years
>of post high school training.  Years ago I taught student nurse courses
>in physiology, anatomy and pharmacology.  They were superficial because
>the students had no basic knowledge on which to build, and the
>expectations of the school for passing the courses were a joke.



   I've had just the opposite experience teaching NP students at the
University of Utah.  Average age is about late 30's, and average
experience in medicine is about 15 years.  If you tell about a common
medical problem, you find they're with you--they've been there, done
that.  They know EXACTLY what you're talking about clinically, and they
never let you get off track into tangential stuff.  They want to know
about the disease, what causes it, what the latest treatments are, how
to deal with it better.  Teaching medical students (which I've also
done) is a completely different experience.  They have no clue when you
mention (say) CHF-- they know what it is on paper, but no scenes of
blue and wheezing people on O2 pop into their heads, and they don't
give a damn. They're bored, overworked, and not terribly interested.

   Give me NP students ANY day.