A little Wharton and Penn insight

My husband graduated from Wharton's Executive MBA program a few years ago.  It was a crazy time in our lives.  He was working long hours at his normal job and then on weekends and weeknights he would attend class, study or meet with his group.  We thought that having our 3rd kid halfway through the program was in ingenious idea (3 kids in 3 yrs almost to the day).  I was still working as an ICU nurse in Philly and taking the required pharmacology class in the NP program.  We soon realized that we were going to or had already lost our minds.  I quit my job, took a few semesters off from the program and stayed at home full time to quell the madness within our four walls.  I loved it and it was the only way our family would have survived all of the demands we placed on ourselves. 

Ok- I digress- now what was the point of this?  Oh yeah- it's to share an article from Knowlege @ Wharton. It's a great article which discusses the issue of independent NP practice and it's economic impact. 


Quote from the article:

"Physicians may be facing a losing battle. "That horse has already left the barn," says Linda Aiken, professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. "With Obamacare coming in and millions of people getting insurance, there is no other way to provide them with reasonable access in the short term except to expand the role of NPs and physician assistants (PAs). It takes 20 years to train a doctor, so there isn't any alternative." According to an article titled, "Broadening the Scope of Nursing Practice," published in 2011 in The New England Journal of Medicine, "between three and 12 nurse practitioners can be educated for the price of educating one physician, and more quickly."
"Doctors have always been wary of others poaching on their turf," says Lawton R. Burns, Wharton professor of health care management. "And highly trained nurses are always looking for more recognition, responsibility and autonomy rather than being under a physician's thumb. It's these types of dynamics that pose a challenge to health care reform."


Things are getting heated, people.  Thoughts?