nice article

[ventana]

Back Thursday, Nov 10, 2011

Posted on Wed, Nov. 09, 2011

[h=1]Nurse practitioners, assistants fill gaps in doctors’ ranks[/h][h=2]Shortage of doctors, cut in residents’ hours, aging baby boomers, health care reform straining resources[/h]By CHERYL POWELL

Akron Beacon Journal

Pediatric neurosurgeon Roger Hudgins, MD, left, and Holly Zeller, neurosurgery physician assistant, look over an MRI scan in the operating room at Akron Children's Hospital before performing surgery to remove a brain tumor in Akron, Ohio.

- MIKE CARDEW /MCT

 

Ann Stratton, a nurse practitioner in the hematology-oncology department at Akron Children's Hospital, listens to the lungs of Diamonique McLendon, 3, of Alliance as Stratton does her rounds in Akron, Ohio.

- MIKE CARDEW /MCT

 

- MIKE CARDEW /MCT

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When the medical staff executive committee helps chart the future of Akron Children’s Hospital, nurse practitioners sit side by side with doctors as peers.

As the hospital’s pediatric neurosurgeon finishes a complex brain operation, he usually steps back and lets a physician assistant close the child’s head.

And if a cancer patient has a problem in the middle of the night, an advanced-practice nurse or physician assistant often provides the care.

The pediatric hospital increasingly is relying on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to deliver high-level care to its young patients.

Hospitals nationwide are turning to these advanced-practice professionals to care for patients for a number of reasons, industry experts say.

Among the factors contributing to this trend: An anticipated shortage of primary-care doctors, reductions in hours residents can work, and an expected increase in demand for medical services by aging baby boomers as well as people who will be newly insured through health care reform.

“They’re coming into the spotlight,” said Julie Tsirambidis, a certified nurse practitioner and director of the Advanced Practice Center at Akron Children’s Hospital.

Tsirambidis also is a voting member of the hospital’s medical staff executive committee, which traditionally included doctors who chair departments.

The hospital created the Advanced Practice Center in recent years to oversee recruitment, orientation, professional development and retention of advanced practitioners, who include physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists.

The hospital employs 164 advanced practitioners and is actively recruiting 24 more.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) earn at least a master’s degree from an accredited program. Both are in strong demand and can command healthy salaries.

Forbes magazine recently named physician assistant programs the No. 1 master’s degree for getting a job, citing an expected growth of 39 percent by 2018.

The average yearly total compensation for NPs nationwide is $94,050, according to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Likewise, physician assistants earn an average base salary of more than $87,000 and more than $89,000 for those who are hospital-based, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. After 10 years in practice, the median salary is $100,000, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

“The supply does not meet the demand,” said Josanne Pagel, executive director of Physician Assistant Services at the Cleveland Clinic. The hospital is offering tuition forgiveness to help attract PAs.

The expanded reliance on advanced-practice professionals to provide around-the-clock care at Akron Children’s is necessary, in large part, because of new restrictions on the number of hours doctors-in-training can work.

Starting in July, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education imposed new standards for the nation’s residency training programs.

As part of those changes, shifts for first-year residents now are limited to 16 hours. For more senior residents, shifts are capped at 28 hours, down from 30.

The accrediting body for the nation’s medical residency programs continues to limit residents’ shifts to about 80 hours a week.

“We started planning for it two years ago,” said Tracey Herstich, a nurse practitioner in the pediatric intensive-care unit at Children’s. She was among those who served on a committee to begin expanding the role of nurse practitioners and other advanced professionals.

Likewise, Akron General Medical Center is increasing the number of advanced-practice nurses from the current 30 in response to the new rules limiting resident hours, hospital spokesman Jim Gosky said.

[EMEDPA]

I like everything about the article except this:

Nurse practitioners, assistants fill gaps in doctors’ ranks

[andersenpa]

I like everything about the article except this:

Nurse practitioners, assistants fill gaps in doctors’ ranks

 

AGREE. First thing I noticed.

[JCrownover]

http://www.ohio.com/news/top-stories/pa-assists-neurosurgeon-with-complex-patient-care-1.242769#.TrR8YJ08Amo.facebook

 

Same subject & PA/physician team but more focused on PAs and not on NPs.

[ventana]

I like everything about the article except this:

Nurse practitioners, assistants fill gaps in doctors’ ranks

 

Wow goes to show I was tired when reading this. Never even caught that. Once again......name change anyone.....

 

 

 

"I don't want to be treated by an assistant, I want to be tested by a practioner.......". Ugh