This article misses the fact that lots of nurses are pursuing graduate degrees to become so-called “nurse practitioners.” In 2021, there were 36,000 new nurse practitioner graduates in the US, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In 2003, there were 6,526 new NP graduates. In 18 years, nearly 6 times the number of nurses decided to leave bedside nursing and pursue NP degrees.For comparison, all US med. schools combined graduated 28,337 new physicians in 2021.Nurse practitioners, with two years of “night school” quality education (many programs are 100% online and have 100% acceptance and graduation rates) and a mere 500-600 hours of clinical shadowing (about 3-4 months of shadowing during 40 hour work-weeks) are given the same authority and power as their physician counterparts. NPs are paid 6-figure salaries, and now that the AANP has required all accredited programs to issue “doctorate” degrees instead of Masters degrees - with no meaningful change in curriculum or program requirements - NPs are insisting on being called “doctor” in clinical environments to confuse their patients.An NP’s 500-600 hours of shadowing pales in comparison to the 12,000-20,000 hours of proctored residency and fellowship training required to practice medicine as a physician.If you could escape the mundane and stressful world of bedside nursing, call yourself a “doctor” without going to med school, and earn $150k working a 9-5 job, wouldn’t you leave nursing too?

This article misses the fact that lots of nurses are pursuing graduate degrees to become so-called “nurse practitioners.” In 2021, there were 36,000 new nurse practitioner graduates in the US, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. In 2003, there were 6,526 new NP graduates. In 18 years, nearly 6 times the number of nurses decided to leave bedside nursing and pursue NP degrees.For comparison, all US med. schools combined graduated 28,337 new physicians in 2021.Nurse practitioners, with two years of “night school” quality education (many programs are 100% online and have 100% acceptance and graduation rates) and a mere 500-600 hours of clinical shadowing (about 3-4 months of shadowing during 40 hour work-weeks) are given the same authority and power as their physician counterparts. NPs are paid 6-figure salaries, and now that the AANP has required all accredited programs to issue “doctorate” degrees instead of Masters degrees - with no meaningful change in curriculum or program requirements - NPs are insisting on being called “doctor” in clinical environments to confuse their patients.An NP’s 500-600 hours of shadowing pales in comparison to the 12,000-20,000 hours of proctored residency and fellowship training required to practice medicine as a physician.If you could escape the mundane and stressful world of bedside nursing, call yourself a “doctor” without going to med school, and earn $150k working a 9-5 job, wouldn’t you leave nursing too?

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