Dammit, Jim!
This past weekend on one of the DPC forums, there was a great discussion regarding the almost parasitic infusion of mid-levels into DPC and the mounting confusion concerning the term Direct Primary Care provider (a term I absolutely hate) vs. Direct Primary Care Physician.
I told the story about patients contacting primary care practices and being informed they will in fact be a seeing primary care provider. Patients oftentimes misconstrue that just because they are seeing “providers” they are in just as good of hands as if they were seeing a physician.
Now some can debate this all day long. There is no doubt that NPs and PAs can have a fantastic role in medicine when we work side by side.
However, even the suggestion that somebody with 500 hours or less of clinical exposure and training to become a mid-level as opposed to the 15,000 plus hours and many years of postgraduate work and training of a physician is now in more ways being presented to the public as equivalent to a physician is dangerous, and extremely disrespectful.
So what do we do? First and foremost, stop letting yourself be called “the provider”, and insist you are addressed and always clearly identified as a physician. We need to make sure this happens both inside and outside our practices. Next, something I discussed on the FB post is perhaps we change the term direct primary care to “Direct Physician Care”.
Now admittedly, I’m the new kid on the block. This is a career change for me, something I’ve always wanted. If it wasn’t for DPC and the exceptional physicians I was introduced here on Authentic Medicine, I’m not sure I would have made it through life in one piece (relatively) through the many years of medical school and residency late in life as many of my colleagues have or are contemplating retirement.
I propose every physician reading this speak up and continue this conversation, in private. And I don’t mean Facebook. For those with far more time and years in DPC, this is certainly something to consider sooner rather than later. I’m happy to help however I can.
We must not cave to non-physician takeover of primary or any health care. We must not cave to any presentation of mid-level education being on par with ours.
Both ourselves and our patients deserve complete acknowledgment of our highest level of training, not to mention the extreme level of sacrifice of ourselves but our loved ones for years at a stretch.
I for one I’m not backing down. How about you?
I’ve been pounding on the “provider” nonsense for awhile. Thanks for another load of ammo.
It SO pisses me off….