Quote:
Originally Posted by conorthface
Making Room For 'Dr. Nurse'
April 2, 2008; Page D1
As the shortage of primary-care physicians mounts, the nursing profession is offering a possible solution: the "doctor nurse."
More than 200 nursing schools have established or plan to launch doctorate of nursing practice programs to equip graduates with skills the schools say are equivalent to primary-care physicians. The two-year programs, including a one-year residency, create a "hybrid practitioner" with more skills, knowledge and training than a nurse practitioner with a master's degree, says Mary Mundinger, dean of New York's Columbia University School of Nursing. She says DNPs are being trained to have more focus than doctors on coordinating care among many specialists and health-care settings.
|
Interesting to note that this morning some info came out on Mundinger's payouts from certain huge health insurance companies. A huge conflict of interest if I've ever seen one. Totally invalidates her advocacy for low cost nurse doctors - she is an agent of companies who don't want to pay doctors fair wage for their services.
Health Care Renewal: What Influences Advocacy for "Doctor Nurses?"
Quote:
In particular, she is on the board of directors of UnitedHealth Group . . . for that loyalty, by 2007 she had received (per the company's 2007 proxy) rights to acquire 345,930 shares of UnitedHealth, and in 2006 was paid $73,750 in cash and stock options valued at $412,575. That level of compensation might inspire some loyalty.
Presumably, it is in the interest of UnitedHealth to hold down what it pays for primary care . . . Dr Mundinger's advocacy for primary care furnished by "doctor nurses," who would be less well trained and paid than primary care doctors, might serve UnitedHealth Group's interests.
|
LOL. Columbia or not, it is so shady to be taking money from an insurance company and simultaneously proposing massive health care training policy changes. Come on, who are these people fooling. This is almost as bad as the lung cancer study last month that was funded by good ol Phil Morris.