Nurse Practitioner

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are the quintessential midlevel provider, coming in various flavors such as FNP, AGACNP, and PMHNP. Numbering ~325,000 in the US, these midlevels' education often consists of little more than an online diploma mill degree and 500 hours of clinical exposure, amounting to less than 5% of a physician's training. Yet, many states allow them to practice independently without physician supervision or oversight.
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Biased Medscape article attempts to paint false equivalency between physicians and nurse practitioners using cherry-picked studies

Independent NPs: What’s the Evidence?As more states change scope-of-practice laws to allow nurse practitioners to practice independently, what does the evidence on health outcomes show?MedscapeChristina Bennett "...the quality of care is largely equivalent [between patients seen by NPs and physicians]!" the article exhorts. Let's take a closer