NPs/PAs as effective as Physicians in treating diabetes

[rcreek]

This was forwarded to me and I thought I would share it! Here is the article link at The Clinical Advisor

 

A few nice highlights from this article:

• "For patients with diabetes, health outcomes were generally equivalent when the treating clinician was nurse practitioner (NP), physician assistant (PA) or physician"
• "existing research shows that NPs and PAs can perform 85% to 90% of primary care services traditionally provided by physicians".
• "The capacity of these clinicians to fill a variety of roles argues for increased support for new ... policies that encourage flexible approaches to provider roles and team design".

[EMEDPA]

nice. thanks for posting.

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

Always playing devil's advocate here in the forums, is it a positive statement on our quality of care, or a statement which in reality says that for the majority of diabetics it doesn't really matter who provides the care as long as someone is watching the arbitrary HbA1c values as well as providing primary oral med tx. and doing preventive screening? I've often wondered how such a study determines a viable end point? ESRD? CVD onset?

I think the same argument has already been made with regard to URI's, bronchitis, and the like since these are self-limited diseases and Dr. Chimpanzee could be just as effective as the physician (see the love for doc-in-a-boxes). In these cases it isn't so much how you treat as much as it is looking for those other issues that DO warrant therapy. THAT would be a study result that I would hang my hat on, i.e.-are we just as effective with avoiding complications or not missing secondary adverse events?

Don't take me wrong, all the positive press we can get is great! I just wonder sometimes how valid the conclusions are and how they are reached.