Provided by: clinician1.com

Lessons from a Psychiatrist Who Might Want To Make You Angry

There is a very important blog from Dr. Ablow, a psychiatrist who blogs for Fox News. He wrote it about NPs but I think he also would say the same about PAs. I ask you to read it now. If you care about your profession it will make you angry. I think most of us will have a visceral reaction to it, which I think is what Dr. Ablow wanted. If he really believes his rhetoric, then he becomes to me a very scary person.

Take a moment out to read it here: http://clinician1.com/posts/article/fox_news_blog_noted_physician_says_nurses_masquerade_as_doctors/

I would like to let you know why I find his thinking more than just rhetoric but foolish at best and dangerous at worst. As a psychiatrist, he should be trained at realizing that calling people names is not something that fosters agreement and moves everyone forward. Or maybe he really wants to move things backwards, which, again, is not what someone who is a psychiatrist should want to do. It seems to me he was just speaking his mind and acting like someone who is threatened and not using his training in this case. At least I hope so. I think we can learn much from his blog and also try to learn some answers that make sense to his arguments.

Lesson one is to not look at what we do through the eyes of a physician. Dr. Ablow, in what seems to be an attempt to put down nursing and NPs says, “How come no one is flying into an American city today to see a famous nurse, while people arrive from countries around the world to visit with noted American physicians?”

My answer to this would be two fold. Most importantly, most of us practice primary care. That means we do things done by other clinicians all over the world. We are not that unique, we are simply good caring clinicians. We take care of fever, coughs, acne, corneal abrasions, we suture simple cuts, we do pelvics and prostate exams. That is what primary care is about and no one should ever travel across the world to get good primary care. We, by our nature, love this work and we are what America needs. Secondly, no one travels around the world to just see a physician. They travel to see a team of professionals who include the “big name doctor” and then the PAs and NPs, RNs, LPNs and pharmacists, technicians and PhDs that also make up the team. Try to do open heart surgery alone. Can’t be done. You are worthless without the team so get off your pedestal and realize it is not you that is holding it up.

Dr. Ablow goes onto say, "Doctors go to medical school, which is much more rigorous academically and intellectually than nursing school. They also were admitted to medical school, which is a much more competitive process than being admitted to nursing school. The average doctor has more training, relevant experience and raw intellect than the average nurse–period.” So how should we answer that? I fear this is the thinking of many physicians and I fear they think the same about PAs. Why not? After all, are we not just a group of doctor wanna-bes trying our best to take over medicine without going to medical school? Again, let’s stop reacting and look at the most logical answer which is sorry to disappoint but we are not doctor wanna-bes. We never wanted to become physicians or most of us would be. We have real professions with real standards of care. We have laws which allow us to practice and studies show we are excellent at what we do. We do what we are trained to do and do it excellently, and it’s time to get used to it. We work side by side with physicians and other professionals and are their colleagues. We do not need to apologize for practicing medical or healthcare at a very high level.

Lastly, although Dr. Ablow says much to quibble with, I’d like to quote this passage: "If nurses stop impersonating doctors, I’ll stop writing about them impersonating doctors. Until then, just follow the money; people with enough of it will hire physicians, every single time, when they have real health concerns. The vast majority of Americans, on the other hand, whose health insurance is rapidly costing more and buying them less, will see health care workers who chose not to go to medical school and probably would have been turned down, anyhow.”

What distorted nonsense. Dr. Ablow has a real problem with NPs and PAs doing what only physicians could only do fifty years ago. Except that was 1960. He does not realize that the best medical centers in the USA, those that could afford it, choose to place the lives of their patients in the hands of NPs and PAs every day. The best universities and medical schools choose to train us. We are officers in all of the uniformed services and through many years of medical service, have shown we can provide excellent care, even with bullets flying over our heads. Dr. Ablow seems to not realize that NPs and PAs are not a new phenomena, not an invention of Obamacare, and both our professions were developed before he went to medical school.

Our mantra to these physicians must be, “We are excellent clinicians who prove millions of times a day that we can provide high quality care to the citizens of America. We are ready to do whatever we can to help provide this care in the future and ask physicians who care more about their patients than their ego or their incomes, to join us in doing so”.

Dr. Ablow seems to lack the insight needed to analyze medical care delivery. He seems to enjoy putting people down and labeling it as “the truth” which some people in psychiatry might see as some sort of personality disorder. I doubt people fly in to see him from around the world, but oh yes, I forget, he is a physician and obviously a very, very, very special person. Is inflated ego a DSM diagnosis?

Dave

Dave has been a PA, and later NP, leader for thirty years. He strongly believes that NPs and PAs must work together to insure a better future for both professions. Most recently Dave has been busy launching another dream; Clinician 1, the first internet community for PAs and NPs. In October 2008, Dave was honored by the New Jersey State society of PAs with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.

The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE

You must be logged in
to recommend articles

Average (Not Rated)

» Recommended Articles