support the argument
According to an article by Birenbaum (1994), nurse practitioners can provide a wide range of effective services at a lower cost to the health care system. Nurse practitioners have been found to score the same as or better than physicians in process of care, clinical outcomes, and utilization. Nurse practitioners spend an average of 24.9 minutes with each patient, while physicians spend an average of 16.5 minutes. The salary differential between nurse practitioners and physicians results in an average cost of $12.36 per visit for nurse practitioners and $20.11 for physicians. Nurse practitioners also appeared to challenge physicians in health promotion, patient education, ability to take a comprehensive history, patient satisfaction, and patient compliance (Birenbaum, 1994).
Birenbaum (1994) suggests that fully utilizing nurse practitioners in the primary care role they have been trained for without requiring collaboration with a physician would be cost effective for the health care system. As a primary care physician, I disagree with this assessment. Birenbaum (1994) states that utilizing nurse practitioners in the primary care role will only be cost effective if physicians no longer do primary care. According to Phillips, Green, Fryer, and Dovey (2001), collaboration improves health outcomes for patients. Nurse practitioners and physicians should work together to create new models of integrated education and collaborative care with patients as the primary focus (Phillips et al., 2001).
References
Birenbaum, R. (1994). Nurse practitioners and physicians: Competition or collaboration? Canadian Medical Association Journal, 151(1), 76-78.
Phillips, R. L., Green, L. A., Fryer, G. E., & Dovey, S. M. (2001). Trumping professional roles: Collaboration of nurse practitioners and physicians for a better U.S. health care system. American Family Physician, 64(8), 1325.
