Answer To "A Dying Profession" - Become A Nurse Practitioner

A Dying Profession, by Dr. Arie Friedman presents an honest and disturbing look at some of the factors that discourage young people from choosing a career in medicine. (American Thinker, 6 June 2010)

Dr. Friedman writes "As a physician from a family of physicians, I frequently find myself being asked if I would recommend my profession to a young person. With the looming shortage of doctors faced by this country, I believe this is indeed a critical question. In the finest tradition of medical school instructors everywhere, I usually try to answer by proposing a thought experiment:"

"Think about how you would respond if your beloved son or daughter, now a 19 year old straight A student at a top college, came to you and and asked your advice about a career option that possessed the following characteristics:"

• 1. The course of training for this profession is extremely long - between seven and twelve years after college graduation.
• 2. The first four years of training will occur in a post-graduate school that costs as much as $43,000 per year in tuition and fees alone.
• 3. Post-graduate degree programs only accept the best students with the most competitive resumes. In fact, it is widely rumored that many prospective applicants avoid taking interesting college courses for fear of hurting their grade point average.
• 4. The intense schedule of this professional school will usually preclude concurrent employment for any serious student.
• 5. The indebtedness experienced by graduates can only be described as crushing.
• 6. Upon finishing school, graduates will receive only a single take-it or leave-it job offer for the mandatory three to eight year on-the-job post-educational apprenticeship.
• 7. The salary during this apprenticeship will range between $46,000 and $56,000 per year.
• 8. Apprentices experience extremely arduous working conditions. In fact, employers routinely violate the industry standard of an 80 hour work week.
• 9. A few years ago, these apprentices brought a federal class-action suit against their employers for colluding to set salaries and working conditions. In response, Senator Edward Kennedy pushed through legislation that granted these companies a retroactive federal anti-trust exemption. The class-action suit was subsequently dismissed.
• 10. Upon graduation from training, members of this profession will have to deal with a widely recognized crisis in liability lawsuits.
• 11. An extremely complex federal law was recently passed that would so significantly impact the profession that 65% of practitioners opposed it, 50% believe their income will drop, and 46% will now consider looking for a new line of work.
• 12. The new law has essentially eliminated the entrepreneurial opportunity for practitioners to own one of the facilities in which they work.
• 13. Practitioners experience the yearly threat of federally mandated pay cuts through an arcane and bizarre price-fixing scheme. The most recent of these pay cuts was scheduled to be 21% . A reduction in gross revenue of this magnitude threatens to put many small practitioner-owned companies out of business.
• 14. The President of the United States has more than once scapegoated members of this profession in nationally televised speeches.
• 15. Practitioners remain uncompensated for a very large percentage of the work they do for their clients.
• 16. Typical workers in this profession spend many more than 40 hours a week at work.
• 17. Members of this profession experience very low job satisfaction with as many as 43% responding in the affirmative to a survey asking if they would leave their careers if they could afford to do so.

Why Not Become A Nurse Practitioner Instead?

We face a growing and severe shortage of doctors, especially in primary care. While I have the greatest admiration for those who become doctors despite the many challenges pointed out, I believe that some of the growing shortage, especially in primary care, could be solved more quickly, and just as effectively, thanks to the dedicated services of Nurse Practitioners.

Nurse Practitioners are registered nurses (RNs) who are prepared, through advanced education and clinical training, to provide preventive and acute health-care services to individuals of all ages.

For nurses who want to invent their own career, the advanced practice specialty of nurse practitioner has great appeal. "I've used nursing as a platform to do a lot of things," says nurse practitioner Susan Ouellette, CRNP, CSP, RN, PC. In fact, Sue Ouellette says that she got more out of being a nurse than she ever could've gotten out of being a doctor, and went on to say that "for nurse practitioners, the world is your oyster!"

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