Nurses become Doctors
Take A Simple Test and Become Doctor from Nurse. To Treat People or to Kill?
Don’t look now but there are so called Doctor of Nursing Programs (DNP) popping up like marijuana bushes in the California countryside. These programs are available now in 34 states and DC and are growing faster than mushrooms in moist shade. There were 53 open in 2007 and now are up to 93 with plans to get to 200 by 2015. What are they you ask?
It is a certificate program started by nurses and based on the third test of the National Board of Medical Examiners. This is the test a young doctor in training takes around internship time. It is one of the prerequisites for state licensing. A doctor must pass parts one, two and three to get a license and finish his training program. It is a certificate showing that a basic degree of knowledge was attained during the training program (medical school and internship).
The problem is that physicians see this as another attempt by nursing to obtain more certification by simple testing. If a nurse passes the same written exam, they argue they should be paid the same as a doctor. And they call themselves Doctor. Confused yet? The argument is lacking in the fact that the training of a nurse is far less in degree that of a physician in medicine or surgery. Passing a written exam is no indication that one has the experience to use a knife in the operating room or can diagnose diseases as an internist. I can know by reading what lupus mask is. Will I recognize it when I see it though? There is a significant difference in a doctor and a nurse in medical knowledge, education and diagnostic skills. The nursing programs are trying to obscure his fact by calling their programs residencies and fellowships.
We acknowledge that we have nurse practitioners who practice pediatrics and adult medicine and in other areas as well. They have limited prescription rights as well defined by state laws. They all practice under the guidance of a licensed physician. They are not physicians and the DNP will confuse matters more. Physicians support the advancement of nurse education under the physician led team concept. However, there are significant differences in training that cannot be minimized. Testing does not eliminate those differences.
A physician undergoes four years of medical school after obtaining a four year college degree. There are specific courses required for admission to medical school like organic chemistry and so on. After medical school, one undergoes brutal training as an intern and resident in your specialty. Eighty hour work weeks with 24 hour on call periods every other to every third day are the usual training schedule.
Sorry to say, an exam does not get you into the club.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
How about LPN’s taking a test to become a RN? we do as much as they do. The difference being LPN’s cannot hang blood products….i know some very qualified LPN’s that cannot afford to return to school that should be able to sit for RN boards…some even more qualified than what is out there now.