EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS VS. NURSE PRACTITIONERS

Emergency Physicians vs. Nurse Practitioners

Emergency physicians vs. nurse practitioners

Problem statement

Nurse practitioners (NPs), long regarded as key players in the primary health care delivery system, and are poised for expanded clinical practice opportunities. A shift to doctoral-level training, new board certification based on a physician exam, and growing demand. An emergency physician is a physician who works at an emergency department to care for acutely ill patients. The paper produces a comparasion between Emergency physicians and nurse practitioners.

Introduction

An emergency physician is a physician who works at an emergency department to care for acutely ill patients. The emergency physician is a specialist in advanced cardiac life support (advanced life support in Europe), trauma care such as fractures and soft tissue injuries, and management of other life-threatening situations. In some European countries (e.g. Germany, Poland, Austria and Denmark), emergency physicians are also part of the emergency medical service and are dispatched together with EMTs and paramedics in cases of life-threatening situations for patients (heart attacks, serious accidents, resuscitations). In the United States, emergency physicians are mostly hospital-based, but they often work on air ambulances and mobile intensive-care units. (Silver, 2008)

Emergency physicians

When a patient is brought into the emergency department, he or she is usually sent to triage first. The patient may be triaged by an emergency physician, a paramedic, or a nurse; in the United States, triage is usually performed by a registered nurse. If the patient is admitted to the hospital, another physician such as a cardiologist or neurologist takes over from the emergency physician.

In anticipation of the upcoming ACEP Council meeting, prospective counselors have been engaging in some email jib-jab on health reform on the council e-list. Until recently, this discussion focused on the proposed shape and form of our new health care system: much ado about something that emergency physicians (EPs) and ACEP will likely and unfortunately have limited impact. However, the topic has now shifted a bit towards the question of the future role of EPs and the Emergency Department post health reform, something we ought to be able to impact, and which, though equally political, is an in-specialty debate really worth having. Every time I hear about the Medical Home I have to laugh. When it comes to the costs of health care, the hospital is really where the big dollars are spent; but when was the last time you saw a primary care doctor come in to coordinate the care of a sick patient in the hospital? It happens, but not often any more (and I have to admire the docs that still do it). If continuity of care and prior experience with the patient (the raison d'etre for the medical home) is so all-important, why isn't it even more critical when the patient is in the ED or on their way to the OR or the ICU, and who is doing this coordination now? Emergency physicians, that's who, it's what we do every day, and we are pretty damn good ...