Could nurse practitioners fill the primary care gap? (www.theglobeandmail.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by sbv@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Nurse practitioners could help fill the void, advocates for the profession say, if more provinces would adopt policies to integrate them into primary care and pay them fairly for their work. Some physicians’ organizations have pushed back against that approach, arguing that NPs don’t have as much training or education as family doctors and therefore should only be funded publicly when they’re embedded in interdisciplinary teams with MDs.

Aren't these the same organizations that have been dragging their feet on recognizing foreign credentials?

I've been seeing a nurse practitioner for the last couple of years. So far, she's provided the same level of care I'm used to from family doctors: prescriptions, forwarding me to specialists when appropriate, providing the usual advice during checkups. It's fine.

https://archive.is/PkAdd

Edit: took out my grumbly summary, since our healthcare spending seems to be middle of the pack, compared to peer countries.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Kichae@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

There is no reason why specialist wages need to be eviscerated

Yes, there is. We pay specialists fuck-you money, and enable a rigid social hierarchy within a profession that exists to help others.

It's already questionable that GPs are underpaid. Overworked, sure, but they already make signidicantly more than the median income, and well above a living wage, in a society where many work twice as long and just as hard for peanuts.

As a society, we don't need to be enabling the structural narcisim of medical specialists with kingly wages. It's a social sickness.

If specialists want to out-earn the rest of us by a factor of 5 or more, maybe they should work 5 or more jobs.