Around here Nurse Practitioners do a lot of work that was formerly performed by doctors. I have yet to find anyone who thinks this is a mistake. It's just part of your medical care. Some people are trying to make the same thing happen with dentistry, i.e., create the job of Dental Practitioner. Currently Alaska and Minnesota are the only states to allow people to become Registered Dental Practitioners (RDP); activists in 15 other states are trying to make the practice accepted in their state.
Kansas is one of those states because western Kansas is a virtual desert with regard to the availability of dentists. Most counties in the western half of the state have only one or two
dentists, if any. A dozen counties, plus three more in eastern Kansas,
have no dentist at all. At a typical clinic by the Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation they had to close the doors almost at the same time they opened them, as patients had spent the night waiting for the doors to open and there were more than could be seen by the 165 dentists that had donated their time.
The Kansas ADA chapter is against the idea of an RDP and is fighting proposed legislation to establish the position.
1 comment:
That's fine if you wish to degrade a second rate service even further. Seeing a nurse practitioner costs exactly the same as seeing a doctor - at least, it has done on the occasions I've found the doctor unavailable, for whatever reason. There's no such thing as a 'practitioner' in Britain. It's illegal to practice medicine without the necessary MD qualifications. Even veterinarian practitioners were eventually outlawed. Of course, we are talking socialist medicine, so I'll just go and wash my mouth out with soap.
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