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Nurses With Doctorates Ease Shortage

Posted Apr 2, 08 11:57 AM CDT in Science & Health 

(Newser) – As part of the effort to counter the worsening doctor shortage, some 200 American nursing schools plan to train "hybrid practitioners" with doctorates in nursing practice who can function as independent primary care givers. But even as the concept of the DNP catches on, some physicians and nurse practitioners are raising red flags about the “doctor-nurse” designation, reports the Wall Street Journal.

"Physicians' understanding of complex medical issues and clinical expertise is unequaled," says a doctor who argues that advanced-degree nurses need physician supervision. Nurse practitioners worry about being forced to go back to school, and other experts fret over the prospect that the higher-paying "hybrid" positions will lure primary-care nurses away from standard patient care.

Source Wall Street Journal

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Nursing schools increasingly are offering doctorates in an effort to ease primary care shortages.   (Getty Images)
New Mexico State University nursing student Jennifer Jones studie for a microbiology test.   (AP Photo)
Nursing schools increasingly are offering doctorates in an effort to ease primary care shortages.   (Getty Images)
The new Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree is drawing mixed reactions within the medical community.   ((c) gregor_y)
"Hybrid practitioners" have more training than nurse practitioners but less than doctors.   ((c) meyshanworld)
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medicine  • education  • doctor  • health care industry  • nurses  • physician  • shortage  • nursing


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