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Comment by adgjlsfhk1

5 days ago

we also could just stop having the federal government limit the number of residency slots so we could have enough doctors trained in the US.

28 comments

adgjlsfhk1

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jmye  5 days ago

Not just residency. Fix the cost (and capacity) of the education system as a whole, especially for mid-levels. There’s no reason this country should have such a chronic NP shortage, and you don’t need MD/DOs for most of the healthcare gaps we have.

You also make rural care viable when you don’t have folks who need to pay off astronomical loans.

  • mindslight  5 days ago

    How are NPs not just the trend of enshittification? Most doctors already aren't very engaged in the tiny 15 minute slices of appointments, and now we're supposed to be happy that they'll be even less educated? The most straightforward way to address the doctor shortage is to make it so doctors are spending most of their time on healthcare, rather than appeasing "insurance" company bureaucrats with onerous paperwork.

    • tptacek  5 days ago

      Nurse-Practitioners work harder to get their certification than almost anybody who comments on HN and it is not OK to talk about them this way.

      1 reply →

    • evantbyrne  5 days ago

      Finding good (and available) primary care providers has always felt like going to the casino in my experience. Currently seeing an older NP who has been great. I could see a future with many more NPs. Obviously, if you know a guy or need a specialist, then do what makes sense.

    • jmye  5 days ago

      What a weird comment. What do you think you need an MD for, in your primary care visit, that an NP can’t do? What do you actually know about their education? What do you actually know about licensing? How much time, in a day, do you think doctors are spending on “insurance”, and what specific experience leads you to believe that?

      (Because the actual answer is “near zero for literally any provider who isn’t completely independent, and almost none of them are, anymore”.)

      Or was this just a way to memetically add “enshittification” to a conversation it doesn’t even slightly apply to, but you think that’s currently trendy?

      13 replies →

    • FireBeyond  5 days ago

      There are NP mills that will take you from high school, put you through an accelerated RN and prereqs and basically have you as an independent provider in just a few years out of high school (well, 4-5), that’s ridiculous.

      4 replies →