Texas Tech university is planning to offer students interested in pursuing Family Medicine a shortened medical education in order to increase the number of primary care physicians.
Great idea Washington! Ha! BAD IDEA! Let me tell you why in a few points:
--Family medicine doctors need more time in training (i.e. 4 year residency and 4 years of med school), not less.
--This plan sounds like the "barefoot doctors" of China two decades ago. What will differentiate the 3 yr MD from the Doctor of NP? The simple solution to increasing the number of primary care doctors is PAY THEM ADEQUATELY.
--Less training and/or a less rigorous curriculum does not adequately prepare primary care physicians for what lies ahead, plus it would cast us in a far less favorable light. Many are completely unaware of the challenges of being a capable generalist. There is so much that needs to reside in our brains, and of course we have to be well aware of our limitations also.
--We already have short trained "doctors" without good fundamentals....they are called nurse practitioners and physicians assistants.
Let me know your thoughts.
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I agree. If I make a Doctor appointment,it is my Doctor that I expect to diagnose,as well as,to choose treatment. I am also quite appalled that our society has allowed the Ins Co's to strip our Physcians of the right to practice their Profession with similar expectations that any other Professional is granted: very simply, without restraint within their profession and to be fairly compensated. As a "People" we should insist on more for ourselves, our children,@ our extended families than to be forced to forego our Physician's Care because an Ins. Co has decided we don't deserve such care. Do you understand the ethics (within Ins. Co)of forcing clients to choose a Physician from a list and if that isn't insulting enough, they dismiss the same Physicans diagnosis & just as often, the treatment ordered, even though, available. To add salt to the wound, the Ins Co's decide the Physcian doesn't deserve to be paid fairly. Is there not something wrong there? I ask, "What would most likely occur if Physcians were allowed to "Doctor," individuals were not going without treatment, and Ins. Co's actually did what their Profession suggest: insure and compensated faily...Perhaps a healthier human state?
ReplyDeletePamela Brown