Approximately 92% of physicians report seeing an increase in the number of nurse practitioners, according to a Sept. 3 poll from physician social networking platform Sermo.
Sermo spoke with 400 physicians on a nationwide rise of NPs. While nurse specialists can help facilitate faster access to care, fill in physician shortage gaps and reduce healthcare costs, some physicians express concerns that NPs lack education standardization.
Approximately 84% of physicians have expressed concern over the lack of standardized training for NPs, while 87% have also witnessed issues concerning NPs and patient care.
However, over half of physicians (53%) say that NPs have been valuable for providing care in rural counties after physicians left and hospitals closed.
Physicians believe that NPs need more stringent standards, expressing support for increasing physician oversight and check-ins (80%), raising the required clinical hours for graduation up from 500 to 750 (72%) and limiting online learning (71%).